[License-discuss] [Non-DoD Source] Re: US Army Research Laboratory Open Source License proposal

[John Cowan]

Karan, Cem F CIV USARMY RDECOM ARL (US) scripsit:

> She told me that the Berne convention does not change laws in individual
> countries, it just removes certain formalities.  As such, if the foreign
> government permits the USG to hold copyright in the foreign country,
> then the USG is permitted to do so.

Exactly.  In general, whether a foreign person (in the legal sense) A
has rights in country B depends only on the laws in country B, which of
course include any international treaties that B has signed.  The laws
of B may make reference in particular cases to the laws of A's country,
or any other country, of course.  But they don't have to, which is what
makes conflicts cases so interesting to a sufficiently geeky mind.  And a
country can certainly grant more rights to A than a treaty requires it to.

See T. A. Cowan, "Marks of Primitivity in the Conflict of Laws",
26 Rutgers L. Rev. 191 (1972-1973), online at
<http://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/rutlr26&div=16&id=&page=>
IANAL, but I am interested in law by jus sanguinis.  :-)

-- 
John Cowan          http://www.ccil.org/~cowan        cowan at ccil.org
There is a Darwinian explanation for the refusal to accept Darwin.
Given the very pessimistic conclusions about moral purpose to which his
theory drives us, and given the importance of a sense of moral purpose
in helping us cope with life, a refusal to believe Darwin's theory may
have important survival value. --Ian Johnston