SH>Now - do you understand what I've been *TRYING* to say here?
SH>If you want to maintain a copyright on source code, don't give it to an
  >infinite number of people whom you do not know!
  I think everyone understood what you were saying from the beginning.
  You're just confusing the concept of holding a copyright with that
  of securing the code. Everyone in the world can have a copy of your
  source code (or book, or song) and you can still maintain the
  copyright. And you can use that copyright to collect damages if
  someone sells your intellectual property without your permission.
  For instance, why not write a song called "She Likes Me" with words
  like:
    She likes me, yea, yea, yea
    She likes me, yea, yea, yea
    With feelings like that
    You know she must be fine (da da da da)
  Do you seriously think you would be able to publish that song and make
  money on it without hearing from some lawyers? What do you think your
  chances would be of having the case "laughed out of court"? And yet,
  that's exactly what you're talking about doing with programs - just in
  another venue.
  Ask Stevie Nicks of Fleetwood Mac. She pays royalties to a songwriter
  who wrote (and copyrighted) a little poem to her unborn daughter in
  the mid-seventies. The courts found that it was too similar to
  Fleetwood Mac's hit "Sara" to be a coincidence. Stevie said there was
  no copyright infringement, but she still sends the checks.
  This sort of thing happens all the time, but the settlements usually
  include a non-disclosure clause so we don't hear about it.
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