[Wikipedia-l] Re: What would Richard Stallman say? (IP users)

Wed Feb 25 18:08:17 UTC 2004

Till Westermayer wrote:

>>Till Westermayer <till at tillwe.de> writes:
>>
>>>Depends. In the US, you can, in Germany, you can't.
>>>
>>I guess you meant the "urheberrecht" in Germany - it is
>>conceptionally different from the US copyright.  The one who
>>creates a work owns the "urheberrecht" and he or she can grant the
>>right to make use of the work to somebody else.  That's it
>>roughly.
>>
>Yeah. And if a person in Germany creates a work, s/he will own the
>urheberrecht and the copyright. Even if s/he seels the copyright, s/he
>will still own the urheberrecht. As far as I know, this situation
>doesn't exist in the USA, and I think some of the confusion about this
>topic is related to that non-universal distinction.
>
Canada recognizes separate moral rights, but the implication of that is 
unclear.  

The sale of copyrights creates a contractual obligation, and may provide 
for the buyer to have an exclusive right to publish.

What was interesting about the former US law that provided for renewals 
after 28 years is that the right to renew was exclusively that of the 
author.  Thus, if he had received a bad deal when he sold the rights in 
the first place that original deal expired, and he was free to negotiate 
a better deal elsewhere.  The company that had first bought the rights 
did not have the right to renew.

Ec

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