New candidates for inclusion in Extras : udftools and starfighter-music

[Nicolas Mailhot]

On Jeu 10 février 2005 13:18, Ralf Corsepius a écrit :
> On Wed, 2005-02-09 at 20:02 -1000, Warren Togami wrote:
>> Ralf Corsepius wrote:
>> >
>> > I.e. even if you did not explicitly put a "Copyright (c)" notice on
>> such
>> > a piece of work it will be copyrighted by you. In Germany, all you
>> only
>> > can do is to give away "licenses to the public", and "express your
>> will
>> > not to enforce unauthorized copying/modifications", but you can not
>> give
>> > up any copyright.
>> >
>>
>> You are correct, except I think it was the Berne Convention (along with
>> the past 2 or 3 copyright acts in the USA) that made registration of
>> copyrights in America optional.  If you write anything in America, it is
>> automatically protected by copyright even if you don't explicitly
>> include a copyright notice.  But it does help to have one, and register
>> the copyright to be able to prove ownership and possibly enforce it.

The Berne Convention tried to unify American copyright laws and European
"Author rights" legislation. It brought everyone closer but to this day
the laws on creative works are not 100% identical both sides of the
Atlantic.

>> Anyhow, my only point is that it is supposed to be a global standard of
>> minimally 50 years without necessary notice or registration.  That isn't
>> limited to just Germany.
> :)
>
> What I outlined above ("Freedom of Arts") is part of Germany's
> constitution ("Grundgesetz").

"Author rights" are heavily protected in Europe because creative works can
have a political nature and European states have decided long ago
political action should be protected to preserve their democratic nature.
They serve a similar purpose as the first amendment in the USA, except the
balance is a bit different. Free speech is not unlimited here - a lot of
states have decided long ago Nazi propaganda didn't deserve the protection
of the law for example. On the other hand "author rights" can provide a
very versatile protection from more than just the state.

The thing to remember is they are not just some sort of legislative oddity
- they are considered _fundamental_ rights and when exercised can have
much the same trump card effect as first amendment invocation in the USA.

-- 
Nicolas Mailhot