Simplify footer notice in prosilver

[KnocksX]

People look for a "contact us" link, which is typically in the footer. They do not find one, but instead see a link to phpBB.com, which claims to "power" the site they wish to complain about. In fact, a variation of the word "power" appears in the first sentence of many emails sent in this regard. In fact, even our hosting company receives a fair bit of complaints about 3rd party websites running phpBB. As such, I would imagine that Wordpress has to deal with the exact same thing.

It is quite true that copyright and trademark is assigned automatically. Yet despite it being "optional", trademark registrations are at an all-time high and nearly everyone chooses to assert their rights in every way possible. The simple reasoning being that intellectual properly law is a complete mess with absolutely no clear and correct answers to anything. When "international" is mixed into the issue, the most concrete answer I've been able to get out of any lawyer (in different countries, mind) is "yeah, probably, maybe, hmm...". So to address the rest of your point, we are not going to be mavericks when it comes to this. It is just not worthwhile to continue spending time on this benign issue.

Again, none of this addresses the fact that my forums are not copyrighted by phpBB and should not have © phpBB Group in the footer. The phpBB community boards and Area51 might be copyrighted by phpBB, depending on their user agreements; other people's forums are not. vBulletin started this idiotic trend because they like to scare as many people as possible into buying licenses. We don't have that concern here. What's next, an FBI warning?

On the other hand, if you are intimately familiar with UDRPs, then I would be interested in speaking with you.

Fine, check your PM

[Pony99CA]

Again, none of this addresses the fact that my forums are not copyrighted by phpBB and should not have © phpBB Group in the footer.

Haven't companies (like Apple and Lotus, for example) tried to copyright the user interface? If so, a copyright in the footer could be indicating that the UI is copyrighted, not the content. In fact, in 2010, a European court ruled that the user interface requires a separate copyright from the program code, so a presented copyright may make some sense.

And, depending on how you parse things, "Powered by phpBB® Forum Software © phpBB Group" could be read exactly as Rusty said -- that the "phpBB Forum Software" is what is copyrighted. But to be more explicit would require a longer notice, like "Powered by phpBB® Forum Software; phpBB user interface © phpBB Group". While that would no longer be possibly misleading, it would seem to go against your second and third reasons for starting this topic.

As Rusty said, I think that it's time to let this one go.

Steve

[Oleg]

https://area51.phpbb.com/phpBB/viewtopi ... 47#p243947 seems like a sufficient reason to keep the current wording.

[EXreaction]

"Forum Software by phpBB" would identify that the forum software is by phpBB to avoid confusion. That's much straightforward than "Powered by phpBB(r) Forum Software (c) phpBB Group."

Pony, yes, the GUI may be protected by copyright, depending upon the country of residence, but displaying a copyright symbol or information is not required in order to receive copyright. Copyright is automatically granted on original, unique work. The copyright notice for the GUI, for those interested in reading it, is within the HTML source code of the page in the overall_header template.

All of the copyright of the code on a standard phpBB installation (besides included libraries and other code documented as not from phpBB) is owned by phpBB, that much is clear in the source files. phpBB does not own the copyright of the majority of the content of the page, as the current copyright mark in the footer would imply, which is probably a large portion of the cause of confusion where people report issues to who they believe owns the content (copyright) of the pages they are viewing.

[Oleg]

I am somewhat in favor of "Powered by phpBB® Forum Software" (dropping phpbb group) but it's up to someone else to get the lawyers' approval for this, i.e., talk to Marshalrusty.