Once more a single bracket f-cks the board message up. :) Here's the continuing text (btw, magazines, not magiazines):
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:) "Then what is a better name then, you critisising beotch?" GhostTown Gaming, Team GhostTown, TheCompany (really sounds better if you really want to use the word).
As a musician I've read up on Copyrights. I don't feel the need to type the text in my modules, I know what can be done if my tunes are used without my consent. Before you write (c) (tm) (r), know what the real thing is. Better than making a fool out of yourself. Be mature. If you didn't know this, you are just not informed I guess. Else I advice this sillyness to stop.

Ok, I had to rant didn't I? :)

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zaril@hellven.org - ICQ 7698022

(c) and (tm) sounds stupid to me on amateur work, cause as much as I know I don't have to put a (c) in my modules, if someone uses it against my will they won't care if i wrote 3 letters there or not. my claim that it is my music doesn't grow stronger cause I have a (c) written there. which means, no need to write (c) since --we all have a basic copyright-- upon our work, which is called something like "creator's rights" in Swedish laws. I checked how much a trademark costs in Sweden today and I'll get more counseling tomorrow about it. a trademark costs money in Sweden, no court would help you if you have a (tm) but haven't paid for it. but swedish laws and american laws are different. in Sweden you can't sue anyone for thousands for just anything.

how will we know what copyright is payed for if any little toddler writes (c) 2001, all rights reserved. on about any new little newbie project that won't ever be finished?

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zaril@hellven.org - ICQ 7698022

"Creator's rights" is just the Berne convention, which I talked about. Just about all major nations now have adopted it.

Copyright claims might look stupid to you on amateur work, but it's a compact and legal way of declaring the date of claim and the author. Does it provide any extra proof? No. It's a declaration, not evidence.

Trademarks specifically apply to logos and media associated with marketing a product, brand name, or company/affiliation. You are not granted trademark by default, and hence it's not dumb to slap a TM on your logo. There's no one to say an amateur studio might consider themselves a professional studio pending. And, furthermore, a professional studio hardly deserves the special right to steal an amateur's intellectual property.

The US specifically allows you to claim a trademark without registering it, but you retain no protection. Yes, we know you're from Sweden. But a lot of the people you seem to think are making themselves look stupid are not. And I'm trying hard not to be an ass here, but you're wrong about Swedish trademark law. According to Swedish law, "A trader can, without registration, have exclusive rights to a trademark if the mark has been used extensively and is known, in this country, to those to whom it is aimed at as a mark for that traders goods/services. In the event of a dispute regarding the rights to such a mark, evidence of use can be confirmed by certificates from trade associations, advertising costs or market surveys." This is also a direct echo of American trademark law.

how will we know what copyright is payed for if any little toddler writes (c) 2001, all rights reserved. on about any new little newbie project that won't ever be finished?

Why would you ever need to know if he's paid to register his copyright claim with the federal government? The only people that have any business caring are the claim holder, his business associates, and his lawyer.

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We can't stop here! This is bat country!

http://www.confluence.com

this is why. but ear gave me somelight over the subject. we don't need to worry since it's definitely kind of awkward or exxxpensive to have the sole right to an english word. anyway, the rest seems resourceful.

ok, i'll not change the subject - but my reason behind this all was 'it is a rant'.

the fact about smoking being cool is irrelevant when i just rant about how people smoke to act cool. see my point? it's atleast what i ranted about.

i hardly think the people who slap their (c)'s everywhere know this information you dug up.

thank you for the enlightment though, i'll talk to the swedish patent work tomorrow though, i called too late today.

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zaril@hellven.org - ICQ 7698022

It seems to me that, despite what everyone [in America] says about America, it's really one of the stupidest countries in the world, demographically speaking. Like you said, we censor nudity (which can't hurt anyone) and embrace violence (which can).

Also, we're too dumb to recognize animation as an intelligent form of entertainment for any but the kiddies. Read: no anime :(

Everyone is really paranoid, self-absorbed, self-righteous, and hypocritical here. Now, I'm speaking from my slightly tainted viewpoint in Utah, where 99% of the people are white, family-oriented Mormons upholding "traditional family values" as it were. Maybe L.A., NYC, etc. are a little better =P

Personally, I think the smartest people in the world are in the Orient, especially Japan, followed closely by Europeans. Africa and Australia aren't on my list since I have no experience :) And, frankly, America and the Middle East rank dead last, in that order.

Of course, that's being slightly unfair to the Middle East, since it's not so much the general public creating all that senseless, fucked up violence as it is the political factions. But at least we don't have that kind of bullshit in America.

Now that I've made a thoroughly un-patriotic rant and offended every ethnicity known to man (with the possible exception of Eskimos) I'm going to leave it up to you to flame the hell out of me :)

That is all.

--Invicticide

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We don't need better engines, we need better creation tools!

Hmm, yes, we Finns do tend to 'slight' America somewhat while at the same time we are so keen on the 'culture and stuff', and YET... at every turn we get, there's programs in the television or news or anything that can show how stupid/funny/odd the 'American dream' really is... The paradox of it all.

Hey, Zaril, you're right, Sweden is nice, too, no neighbour hate here *g* Me and my boyfriend (and my parents) were on a holiday there some... two weeks ago. I love visiting Stockholm and so always. We're not very different after all =) (heheh, maybe you should have been the guide *g* You always offered that... )

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-Lady D

A little perspective, folks.. First of all, let me just say that my view of America is much like my view of the Republican Party: It sucks, and I can go on and on about how many things I hate about it. But then I look around at the alternatives, and realize that it's the best of the viable alternatives, and get depressed.

I'm a bit sick of the America bashing lately, tho. Lets take Kyoto for instance. As Europe collectively says "Oh DAMN that stupid President Bush for withdrawling from Kyoto!" The fact of the matter is we know that every single european leader is silently thanking him for having the balls to say what they didn't: Kyoto sucks. It was a broken treaty from the start. First, global warming in and of itself is a bit too inconclusive (http://www.oism.org/pproject/s33p36.htm) and in any event too premature to collectively kill the economies of all the industrial powers in the world (except for China). Which brings me to my other points: The exceptions for "developing countries" (China? -- I think being a developing country and a nuclear superpower are mutually exclusive) - Those are quite convenient. We certainly know that business has NEVER moved to other countries where it can get cheaper labor, or get around environmental restrictions before, so thankfully we have no reason to expect companies to move to countries like China where they can get cheap labor AND be exempted from the environmental laws? .. It's pretty easy to see why this is in China's best interest, and it doesn't take much imagination to see how this could actually WORSEN greenhouse gas emissions. The fact of the matter is, by withdrawling from Kyoto, Bush saved the economies of the US and every other industrial nation (oh yes, and Japan's economy is in SUCH hot shape, they can sure afford to massively curb their industrial production, that'd be a great move for them. ....)

I frequently read slashdot (I abhor it yet am sadistically drawn to it) and read about the DMCA and all the ways in which our country is going to shit. Then I look around at some other countries IP laws: UK, Australia, Germany... Guess what, America is comparatively lenient and sensical when it comes to computer crimes and IP. (Ok, I gotta give EU the lack of software patents -- unforunately it doesn't look like that will last) This is pathetic, of course, but it is the state of affairs. On the flip side, there's countries like Brazil which, in what seems to read straight out of Atlas Shrugged, decided that they can simply steal AIDS drugs because it's wrong for drug comapanies to expect profit when human lives are on the line!!! Well, that's great for a drug that's already developed, but take away companies incentive to make new drugs, and GUESS WHATS GONNA HAPPEN. THERE WONT BE ANY NEW DRUGS.

Ok, so that's IP law. How about the fact that, as freakin socialist as America is, it's by far the most conservative industrialized nation left? As one of the only industrialized nations left without nationalized healthcare, we can learn a lot about how laws effect the quality of health care by looking at what people do (and America's laws are by no means perfect or even good in this respect, but) : Americans drive up to Canada to buy cheap drugs because Canada has price caps, Canadians that have money come to America to get any kind of advanced procedure done, and Americans buy drugs from Europe that won't be approved by the FDA for another 12 years. (http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=24068)

And what should singlehandedly set America down as a country worth respecting: We have the largest economy and the lowest taxes. These two facts are not coincidencal. It's quite simple. There are two reasons that you tax something, either to simply raise money, or to discourage people from using that product, for instance, cigarette or gasoline excise taxes. But whichever is your primary reason, you accomplish both with any tax. It will both generate revenue and discourage people from using that product or engaging in that activity. So if you tax, say, income, then you are discouraging people from generating income. When people that own small businesses (which continue to employ MOST Americans, not large corporations) or family farms die and have to sell their business in order to pay their 55% death tax, you are discouraging people from having businesses. When you tax sales, you are discouraging commerce. Capitalism has flourished and our nation been prosperous inspite of the actions of the government, not because of them. Look at a country like Germany, which has the 3rd largest economy, but because of their high taxes, high minimum wages, and other near-socialistic practices, look at their unemployment rate.

America sucks in a lot of ways, and I'll gladly admit a lot of them. But so far it sucks the least of any other country out there. I'm as sick of religious-right prudes and censor and left-wing socialists and P.C. nazis and Jesse Jackson as the next person. But if you believe in individual liberty, I've yet to find a better place to live. (And I've been looking).

-vecna

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wri2555@yahoo.com

about hoping we won't get gun carrying idiots i don't wish to sound as if america is a land full of idiots. all countries have idiots, i speak only about sweden when i say i hope people don't start using guns. we have guns as well in the public, but those are easy to count.

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zaril@hellven.org - ICQ 7698022