RFD: BSD/MIT-like licence with European clause

[DJ Anubis]

Le jeudi 13 Mai 2004 15:54, Thorsten Glaser a écrit :

> >> In addition to that, in most European countries, there's not only
> >> the Copyright law, but this droit d'auteur thing.
> >
> > I'd be interested to learn how does this changes copyright licensing in
> > practise?
>
> Copyright law is bound to a work, while "Urheberrecht" (German term) is
> bound to a person (ie, the author).
>
> I won't write more because I don't know everything and don't like to
> publish half-truths, maybe someone else may help.

In French Law, at least, copyright may be held by a company while the "droit 
d'auteur" is always held by the original author.

This creates legal issues with most licenses, as only copyright is granted, 
but no provision is made for author's rights.

Practically, an author can delegate copyright to others, such as a software 
company, but he retains the intellectual ownership. So grantees (copyright 
holders) can use the legal stuff about copyright infringments and all other 
matters, but they cannot alegate about intellectual property.

At least in France, a copyright delegation MUST be given with a known delay (3 
to 5 years), this must be constated by a written assesment. Grantee must 
resign a new delegataion afeter this time or the delegation is obsoleted.

The laws about this are a huge manual known as "Code de la propriété 
industrielle et intellectuelle" (Industrial and Intellectual Property Acts) 
and is a nightmare. 

> > I don't fully see how "to the maximum extent permitted by law" wouldn't
> > cover the situations you are worried about?
>
> You know, lawyer speak is difficult. I've thought about it, but
> explicitly saying "Yes, I'm responsible and I didn't put in a
> trojan horse by will" into the licence text at least has a
> psychological effect.

French lawyers insist about a certain formulation in contracts. Copyright 
things and intellectual rights are considered in France as contracts and must 
be written according to this f*****g formulations.

-- 
JCR
aka DJ Anubis
LAB Project Initiator & coordinator
--
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