On Fri, 14 Dec 2001 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > In a message dated 12/14/01 1:00:07 PM Pacific Standard Time, > [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: > > << COPYRIGHTS cannot be transferred. This is an important legal concept to > understand if you are a writer. If YOU WROTE IT, then you hold the > copyright. You can sell a LICENSE of those rights, but you can never lose > them entirely. You will always be "the copyright holder". >> > > Is that so? There are going to be a lot of truly upset parties who thought > they bought the ownership of/full rights to something or another in the last > 50 or so years...
Depends entirely upon the license they agreed to, but it is accurate that copyrights never truly transfer. You can license the complete and full use of your copyright to someone for the entire life of the copyright, such that even you can't use your own copyrighted material - which essentially does the same as transfering the copyright to the second person. But if the copyright life is extended, the license will likely end at the time frame of copyright life at the time the license was agreed to (or at least provide an opportunity for the license to be cancelled at that point) thus returning the material to the original copyright holder. That's why DC comics is currently in negotiation (and maybe some litigation) with either Siegel's or Shuster's (never remember which) estate over the copyright on Superman. Superman wasn't initially created work-for-hire, so DC never held the actual copyright on the original material - they simply licensed the orginal material and the complete rights to use & develop the material. alec _______________________________________________ Ogf-l mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.opengamingfoundation.org/mailman/listinfo/ogf-l
