In article , Nick Gorham
wrote:


But if I release something under the GPL, I have explicitly given
everyone the right to copy,and I have no "right" to prevent that
copying. I don't see how a copyright is created if I chose to publish
under different terms?


The copyrights are yours , automatically, as soon as you create the work.

If you then assign or use them in various ways - e.g. GPL - that is a
decison *based on your initial 'ownership' of the copyright*. You could
not GPL some work whose relevant copyrights were not yours to decide how to
use.

As Tim has pointed out, the author does not "decide to copyright". Those
writes are theirs, by law, as soon as they produce the work. You can decide
to assign some of the rights to others on that basis.

Slainte,

Jim

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