By Anna Von Reitz
To use copyright and trademark symbols or not?
Look at the four jurisdictions:
1. Soil Jurisdiction
Populated by living men and women, animals, and plants:
Each alive.
Each one a self.
A true person.
Unique.
Sovereign.
National.
2. Land Jurisdiction - Subsoil
Inhabited by Lawful Persons:
Represent living people.
Private business.
Unincorporated.
Recorded.
Non-commercial
"Dead" (State Citizens)
International
3. Water Jurisdictions -- Admiralty & Maritime
Inhabited by Legal Persons
Public Businesses
Corporate / Incorporated
Registered
Commercial
"Dead" (U.S. Citizens)
International
4. Air Jurisdiction - Air, Sky, Space
Inhabited by LEGAL PERSONS
PUBLIC BUSINESSES
INCORPORATED
REGISTERED
COVENANTS
MUNICIPALITIES
"DEAD" (citizens of the United States)
Global
You can own copyrights or trademarks in any of the three "Inhabited:" jurisdictions.
When the copyright or trademark belongs to a Lawful Person that copyright or trademark is said to be a "private copyright" or "private trademark". Can also be called a "recorded copyright" or "recorded trademark".
When the copyright or trademark belongs to a Legal Person it is said to be a "registered copyright" or "registered trademark".
When the copyright or trademark belongs to a LEGAL PERSON it may be referred to as a "US copyright" or "US trademark" in this country, or even called a "Municipal copyright", etc.
The issue has come up as to whether we can use copyright and trademark symbols and the answer is, yes, of course. Living people use handwritten copyright and trademark "notices" of the same kind as the machine printed variety used by businesses.
Copyrights and Trademarks used by Lawful Persons (e.g. The New Jersey Assembly) naturally use printed or typed copyright or trademark symbols like any other businesses, but unless the context is clearly referring to a land jurisdiction business we run the risk of being misidentified as a sea jurisdiction enterprise.
We initially recommended against using machine printed symbols for land jurisdiction documents as a result, but that leaves artwork and other "products" in open public domain and we don't want that, either.
Certainly when it comes to the State Seals and publications of The State Assemblies, it is obvious which jurisdiction we are occupying and there is no reason not to use our lawful copyright and trademark "notices" -- the little symbols for each.
It's also appropriate to record the artwork and ownership of it on behalf of the Assembly with the State LRO.
We are going through that process right now with a watermark. We asked the artist to sign over the copyright use of the watermark art as "work for hire" and are recording this in the ownership of the Federation.
You will note that the de facto corporate "government" always uses "registered copyrights" and trademark notices, while we use "recorded copyrights", etc.
As usual, it's a matter of knowing "where" you are -- which jurisdiction -- and which process to use, either "recording" or "registration", but we are not deaf, dumb, and silent anymore.
If our recorded copyright notice is mistaken for a registered copyright, we can produce the recorded ownership documents.
Granna
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