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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoPlainText>[This email best viewed in HTML format]<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>Hi Ben,<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>It would be difficult for Linus Torvalds to complain about porn when he intentionally released an operating system that is so ideally suited for the delivery of porn. It would be like Michelangelo complaining because derivatives of his statue of David revealed some private parts.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>/Larry<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><img width=344 height=363 id="Picture_x0020_1" src="cid:image001.jpg@01CD7C5F.66EB0CB0" alt="Description: http://www.richardclover.co.uk/images/MichelangeloDavid2.jpg"><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>Source: <a href="http://www.richardclover.co.uk/node/39">http://www.richardclover.co.uk/node/39</a><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>-----Original Message-----<br>From: Ben Tilly [mailto:btilly@gmail.com] <br>Sent: Friday, August 17, 2012 9:45 AM<br>To: lrosen@rosenlaw.com; license-discuss@opensource.org<br>Subject: Re: [License-discuss] Can copyrights be abandoned to the public domain?</p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>On Fri, Aug 17, 2012 at 9:12 AM, Lawrence Rosen <<a href="mailto:lrosen@rosenlaw.com"><span style='color:windowtext;text-decoration:none'>lrosen@rosenlaw.com</span></a>> wrote:<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>> Russ Nelson asked:<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>>> Larry, have you ever been driving over a bridge that collapsed?<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>> Not that I can recall. :-) Out of fear of that very result, though, I <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>> support increased infrastructure spending by our government.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>> But I don't stress out every time I drive over a bridge or when I use <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>> open source software that is owned by an individual who wants to <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>> reserve her moral rights. Indeed, I respect moral rights in the ways <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>> that I license and use open source software and I advise respectful <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>> attribution whenever appropriate. Does the protection of moral rights <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>> require anything onerous of you?<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>Let's see. Linus Torvalds is Finnish and began Linux in Finland. As Henrik pointed out, Finnish law has the concept of moral rights, and one of those rights is the right of integrity, which can allow the copyright holder to restrict the use of his copyrighted material in ways that infringe on his honor. In particular you can say that you can't use that work for pornography. Oleksandr pointed us to<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><a href="http://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/ip/berne/trtdocs_wo001.html#P123_20726"><span style='color:windowtext;text-decoration:none'>http://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/ip/berne/trtdocs_wo001.html#P123_20726</span></a><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>which says that this moral right can be enforced even in countries which do not have moral rights in their copyright law.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>I am not a lawyer. I know even less about international law. My knowledge of this topic is, in fact, pretty much half an hour with Google following up references in this discussion. But it looks to me like Linus might have the ability to sue a US pornography company that is using Linux to stream their porn based on his moral right rising from Finnish copyright law. If so, then that would run directly counter to OSD #6.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoPlainText>I trust that Linus never would do so. But if he and many other European contributers to open source projects actually *could* do that, that's not exactly a small detail. (Particularly if you were loving using open source to distribute your loving.)<o:p></o:p></p></div></body></html>