On Sun, 16 Aug 1992 10:36:06 EST Kathryn Wright <LIBKAT@INDST> said:
 
>COPYRIGHT (C) 1992 BY THE FOOBAR REVISED LIST PROCESSOR,
>    [log in to unmask]; NANCY ANN BARFOO, LISTOWNER.
 
Come on, a piece of software can't own a copyright. I know that US law is
particularly complex,  but the day  computers can own copyrights  or real
estate, we will be in serious trouble.
 
>The author says that it's his  intention, in the remotely possible event
>that his  production should ever  see print and receive  royalties, that
>half of said royalties go to  the designated Listserv to help defray the
>cost of its maintenance.
 
I suspect  he means the  money would go  to the organization  running the
server  in question.  I guess  he wants  to write  "COPYRIGHT 1992  WAHOO
UNIVERSITY", which should not create any problem (assuming the authors of
individual contributions accept all this copyrighting business).
 
>He  says that  he doesn't  see why  software can't  hold copyright  if a
>trust, which is only a piece of paper, can do so.
 
Why doesn't he talk to a  lawyer instead of making random statements? How
does [log in to unmask] decide whether to  accept or reject a purchase
offer for the rights of XYZ-L? Do the various lines of code vote? Do they
get one  vote each, or as  many votes as  they were executed in  the last
year? Can lines which were  eliminated by optimizing compilers appeal and
request a share of the votes of adjacent lines? :-)
 
  Eric