I asked the original question (this time), and I think I can answer some of the questions.
On Tue, 26 Oct 1999, Don Roemer <droe2[_at_]earthlink.net> wrote:
>
> The lawyer drafts the contract -- let's say he has an undisputed
> copyright in the aforementioned document (at that moment in time (even
> if it is merely a jumble of facts)). His client tenders it to my
> client. My client and I mark it all up, make revisions, make changes,
> make substitutions to clauses, etal. It goes back to the orig. client
> and lawyer drafter. They make their changes and re-type. Many of my
> revisions are now part and parcel of the final contract draft. Who
> holds copyright?
Assuming the markups were authorized by the copyright holder, the revisions are owned by the persons making them, assuming the revisions can be considered works of authorship.
> Let's assume that a recently written and formally registered manuscript
> was made part of the court record. How does the law reconcile making
> copies of court files that contains material under copyright protection?
> And how does it deal with folks republishing all the data found within
> the file (public record) on Web sites and in other media?
There is no obligation to enforce a copyright, and in this case, it would be ridiculous the even think about it. Failure to enforce the copyright, however, does not mean that a copyright does not exist. The question is academic at this point.
Thanks for all who responded. As usual, the information is helpful and thought-provoking.
Mike Phillips
<radiolawyer[_at_]hotmail.com>
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