I am posing this question for myself, but many people surely are wondering the same, so I think this is valuable for others as well as myself. There are similar questions on the site but they do not ask exactly what I'd like to know. Let me share my own experience to illustrate what I am wonderin...

I'm about to publish a thesis on a new encryption algorithm I devised, and was told by my Committee Chair that I would need to include: A copyright page - to safeguard my work from being patented by some other organization (locking myself and others from using the algorithm). A section releasin...