[sf-lug] Red Hat Linux source code brouhaha?

[Michael Paoli]

On Sat, Jul 1, 2023 at 9:05 PM Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com> wrote:
> distributing Joe's code (or derivatives of it) anyway, then Joe can haul
> that party into civil court on copyright violation tort charges
> (assuming Joe has registered his copyright with Library of Congress
> Copyright Office).

Copyright registration isn't required, and a work may be, regardless
copyrighted (or possibly not).  Notably see:
Berne Convention, etc.  Also varies by country.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berne_Convention
However, lacking copyright registration would be disadvantage to claimed
holder in such cases, not only making establishment of copyright claim
more challenging, but without a registered copyright, one is more
limited in damages that can be recovered.
There are also differences, and various gotchas, regarding published
and non-published works, copyright notification, etc.  E.g. a "broken"
copyright notification can in fact invalidate a copyright.

Caveats: I'm not a lawyer, nor do I play one on TV, and I may not be
particularly current with some of the more recent changes that have been
going on with copyright law.