I'm thinking about submitting my computer program to the U.S. Copyright Office, just for the heck of it, but I have a couple questions regarding source code and trade secrets. I'm going to use the first 10 and last 10 pages of source code option, with no blocked out portions. I would like to protect as much source code as possible, so I'll arrange my source code so only header files are used if possible. What exactly consitutes as one page of source code? Is it one file, even if that file is a couple of lines, or is it a full page with possibly multiple files? How many lines of text is considered to be one page? And if my program uses OpenGL, can I print out files like gl.h, glu.h, glext.h, etc...? GL headers can fill out over 50 pages just by themselves. And what about comments that seem to abuse spacing alot? I might have a page full of only comments embedded in source code. Does this sound ok?

Why?

Nobody does this anymore. Merely creating it gives you equal strength in copyright priveledges.

IANAL, YMMV, etc.

Quote: Original post by raydog
And if my program uses OpenGL, can I print out files like gl.h, glu.h, glext.h, etc...?

Doubtful. You didn't write those files, did you? So you can't possibly claim copyright ownership on them.

Quote: Original post by C-Junkie
Why?

Nobody does this anymore. Merely creating it gives you equal strength in copyright priveledges.

I doubt you are talking from experience. That is a very wrong assumption. Anyone who is serious about their
program will copyright it, otherwise you have no legal standing in a court of law when suing for infringement.

Quote:
Doubtful. You didn't write those files, did you? So you can't possibly claim copyright ownership on them.

Ok, that sounds logical.

Can anybody who has submitted source code with trade secrets try to answer my questions?

Disclaimor- (I'm not a lawyer, and this isn't legal advice)

By creating code you have rights to it. The copyright helps protect those rights better I believe. It's easier to prove in court. Also, you might want to think of multiple ways of doing the same thing.

There is a books at a library about how submit patents, if your doing this yourself. It also depends on the investment you have made on the program. If you are a ready handy dandy coder, and you spent alot of time on this program, it might be cheaper in the long run to call in a "professional" of some sort. Perhaps an accountant, again for me, if it was my call, I would say what is this really worth, how much time do I have in it and would take steps accordingly to protect the idea.

I'm not submitting a patent, just a $30 copyright.

I've searched for hours on the Net for more detailed information on submitting a copyright
for a "computer program" with trade secrets, but all I found was the same old rules. Same old stuff.

I'm doing this for the learning experience and nothing more.

I visited the Library of Congress website, the place where all filed copyrights end up,
but I guess you can't view examples of submitted source code pages there. Have to visit
the LOC in person I suppose. :)