"Ralph" wrote in message
...

What about the cars sponsored by Cingular or Sprint etc?

As a general rule, sponsors aren't going to have much input into the
day-to-day business of the team. However, along the lines you're thinking,
Motorola as a primary sponsor over in CART led to the team using Motorola
headphones (and presumably Motorola radios). Still, for them to gain
copyright on anything the team does, there's going to have to be an
agreement. First, in the USA, copyright defaults to the author (this post is
copyrighted and protected, and I need do nothing to cause that to happen -
likewise the spoken word, etc.) Second, in this day of marketing, drivers,
owners, etc. are copyrighting and trademarking left and right, everything
you can think of, as is NASCAR. The transmissions are copyrighted, according
to the NASCAR website. (And you can buy 'em, if you wish.)
Supposing I'm typing this on a Dell computer, using Windows
software. Even if I do nothing, neither Dell, nor Windows, (nor any other
enabling party) can step in and claim copyright to what I write using their
equipment/systems; Nextel can't claim a copyright on something transmitted
over their equipment.




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