I don't think that anything else is needed. I talked to a lawyer about this in conjunction with AZDB about 10 to 12 years ago, and here's what his take on it was: It used to be that a copy of the material claimed to be copyrighted had to be on file with some federal agency (I can't remember which one), but that was when documents were mostly generated by hand (either hand written or by typewriter, etc.) and the number of documents being copyrighted was large but still just barely manageable. Now days, I believe that all one has to do is to claim copyright status without having to have a copy of it on file anywhere, and be able to prove it is an original work - this just due to the overwhelming mountain of documents copyrighted every day. I think Paul is also correct in that data cannot be copyrighted, but data format, presentation, and schema is. You can certainly ask that whoever uses the data give SAC credit for it, but I doubt that there is any way to enforce it from a legal basis. What I'm seeing, at least with The NGC/IC Project, is that the people using the data are asking if it's OK to give The NGC/IC Project credit for it since that enhances the credibility and veracity of the data they're using, and puts the responsibility for any errors squarely on the shoulders of The NGC/IC Project rather than the creator/publisher of the application using the data. Kind of a CYA on their part :-) In other words, we (The NGC/IC Project) get credit where credit is due, and the creator/publisher of the application passes any liability for data integrity away from him and onto The Project. My $0.02 worth. /Bob > -----Original Message----- > From: sac-board-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:sac-board- > bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Steve Coe > Sent: Thursday, November 13, 2003 11:28 AM > To: sac-board@xxxxxxxxxxxxx > Subject: [sac-board] Re: Fw: copyrighted or public domain of double star > data base >=20 > Bob; >=20 > So, can we just speak "this is copyrighted material" and release it to > interested parties? As long as they agree to give SAC full credit for the > creation of the form of the database and the introductory materials. Is > there anything else we need to do to make it copyrighted? I hope this > does > not involve money, again. >=20 > Steve >=20 > Author "Deep Sky Observing--The Astronomical Tourist" > Saguaro Astronomy Club website > www.saguaroastro.org >=20 >=20