There is a useful discussion of copyright assignment at [1]. Also: copyright doesn't enforce itself. If we want the copyright obeyed, we need (a) a way to find out when someone violates it, and (b) resources (money for lawyers) to enforce it. If we win a lawsuit, can we expect to get legal fees reimbursed, worldwide?
It isn't necessarily easy: "Leighton says it is absolute hell to chase a GPL violation back through this chain, fighting ignorance and arrogance across international boundaries every step of the way." [2] If we couldn't find enough warm bodies to do the paperwork to keep the Open Hardware Foundation going, how the bleep are we going to enforce our copyright/patent? If we care about enforcement, we need to consider partnering with an organization with the resources needed for enforcement. Perhaps a copyright collective [3] ? The bit about "In Europe collecting societies require their members to transfer them exclusive administration rights of all of their works. United States and Canada have less restricting rules as members maintain their rights simultaneously with collecting societies." is worrisome. Is that a law in Europe, or just a tradition with existing collecting societies? People are going to want to retain rights to their own work. And we would want the collective to be reasonable, unlike some of RIAA's actions. [1] http://lwn.net/SubscriberLink/529522/854aed3fb6398b79/ [2] http://www.itwire.com/opinion-and-analysis/open-sauce/52054-british-company-looks-to-create-cheap-open-platforms [3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collecting_societies _______________________________________________ Open-graphics mailing list [email protected] http://lists.duskglow.com/mailman/listinfo/open-graphics List service provided by Duskglow Consulting, LLC (www.duskglow.com)
