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INFORMATION AND DOCUMENTS NEEDED FOR SOFTWARE COPYRIGHT APPLICATION ---------------------------------- M. Lee Murrah Attorney at Law 6504 Hillcrest Rd. Roanoke, Texas 76262 Metro 430-3760 (Area 817) Information Needed ------------------ 1. Full name and nationality (or domicile) of author. 2. Birthdate of author, unless the copyright is to be owned by a company. Date of death if author is dead. 3. If multiple authors, description of what each contributed. 4. If the applicant is different from the author, a description of how the applicant obtained ownership of the software. 5. If the registration is to in the name of a company, the full name and address of the company and the name and title of the officer who will make the application. If the software was written as an employee of a company, the software is considered a "work for hire", and the company is considered the "author". 6. Year the software was created. 7. Full date the software was first published (if it has been published), and the country in which first published. 8. If the software is being published commercially, the name and address of the publisher. Documents Needed ---------------- 1. A full printout of the software source code for file documentation purposes. Be sure the source code has a comment or remark at the beginning with the title of the software and your copyright notice. See BULLETINS for proper form of copyright notice. 2. A printout of the software object code (hexadecimal listing) for file documentation purposes. Be sure the object code includes a copyright notice that appears on the initial screen EVERY TIME THE SOFTWARE IS RUN. See BULLETINS for proper form of copyright notice. 3. Three (3) special copies of the software for deposit with the application. The guidelines in 1 and 2 immediately above regarding copyright notice should be followed, EXCEPT that certain portions of the deposit copies may be omitted or be blacked out as described below. 4. Documentation for the software. Be sure the documentation has a copyright notice on the title page. See BULLETINS for proper form of copyright notice. 5. Copy of registration previous version of the software, if any. Software Deposit Guidelines --------------------------- You have three options for making deposits of software with your application: 1. Deposit the first 25 and last 25 pages of the SOURCE listing. If less than 50 pages, then all must be submitted. 2. Deposit all the object code under the "rule of doubt." 3. Deposit the source and/or object code with portions omitted or blacked out, with a special "petition for special relief",as follows: (a) Submit the first and last 25 pages of the SOURCE code with up to 50% blacked out. (b) Submit the first and last 10 pages of the SOURCE code with none blacked out. If less than 20 pages, then all must be submitted. (c) Submit the first and last 25 pages of the OBJECT code plus any 10 or more consecutive pages of the SOURCE CODE. If the object code is less than 50 pages, then all must be submitted. Clearly, in any case you would want to do two things: (1) place the "meat" of the program in the middle part which may be omitted under the guidelines, and (2) double or triple space your source listing. RECOMMENDATION: Option 3 with the option ( a, b, or c) which reveals the least amount of sensitive code is usually the best choice.