free sco unix

[Alex Stangl]

On Fri, Jun 17, 2011 at 10:28:51AM -0600, Chad Perrin wrote:
> Registration aids enforcement.  Of course, there's always the "poor man's
> copyright registration" approach, where the moment you have something you
> would like to protect by copyright, you can seal it up in an envelope and
> mail it to yourself.  Keep it sealed.  If you ever need proof of
> copyright, including date of copyright, you can then take the sealed
> envelope with you to court to show the postmark date, unseal the
> envelope, and show the full text of the document inside.
> 
> Of course, it's not *perfect*.  It may be that postmarks stop being
> regarded as suitable proof of date at some point, thanks to increasing
> ability to fake a postmark.  Your sealed envelope trick only works once.
> You need to protect that sealed envelope against loss and damage.  You
> would need to do this for *everything* for which you want to have some
> kind of proof of date of copyright, which can fill up file cabinets in a
> hurry.  This is why copyright registration is still useful.

Sorry to contribute to this long thread that is only peripherally
related to FreeBSD, but I have to ask -- does this trick really work?
You can send yourself unsealed (or just very lightly sealed, or with
manilla envelopes, just use the clasp, not the gum) envelopes whenever
you like, and then insert contents & seal at some later date. It seems
a flimsy "proof" that the contents actually were in the envelope as of
the postmark date. I'd be curious to find out whether courts have
really accepted this, or whether it's more of an urban legend.

Alex