In article ,
"Geoffrey S. Mendelson" wrote:

Smitty Two wrote:


Sorry, Meat. Any creative work is protected by copyright law from the
moment of its creation. Letter to Mom, drawing on the napkin at the
diner, or newsgroup post. You do not need to register a copyright to
make it valid, nor do you need to state "this is copyrighted yada yada
yada."

Only in the U.S. and only since the late 1980s.



You may be right about international law, I don't know. But, "since the
late 80's" ... where did you hear that? My mom, a full-time freelance
writer with hundreds of published works over her lifetime, authored a
handbook on copyright law in the mid-sixties or so, and the law read
then as I have stated.