John Halton wrote: > a. I don't think a copyright notice can be taken as an assertion of > authorship, precisely because the copyright may be owned by someone > other than the author. Hence most books that are published in the UK > include both a copyright notice (usually naming the publisher as > owner) and a statement that the author has asserted their moral > rights.
True. Let's try again: if the sole mention of a natural person who is the creator occurs in the form of a copyright notice, then I would take that as a claim of authorship. > b. Even if a copyright notice could be read as an assertion of the > author's moral rights to be identified as the author, I don't think > this would make the text of the notice itself inviolable - provided > that the author was still acknowledged elsewhere. I'm not sure. If the author chooses a particular way of being mentioned as author, does that override any other way of identifying him as author? > > Under US law, art. 6bis Berne does not apply (even though it should) > > to authors of computer programs. > > Ditto English law. I think that betrays an assumption on the part of > US and UK lawmakers that computer programmers are merely technicians, > not creative artists. Can Berne be invoked directly in the UK? I know the US has closed that route. The issue here is that computer programs are to be protected as "literary works" in Europe (Directive 91/250/EC), and that means they get the full range of protection. Moral rights are part of that protection, so a EU member state should have the moral rights available to software authors. Arnoud -- Arnoud Engelfriet, Dutch & European patent attorney - Speaking only for myself Patents, copyright and IPR explained for techies: http://www.iusmentis.com/ Arnoud blogt nu ook: http://blog.iusmentis.com/ -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
