Weekly edition	Kernel	Security	Distributions	Contact Us	Search
Archives	Calendar	Subscribe	Write for LWN	LWN.net FAQ	Sponsors

Moral rights - no problem, AFAICT

Posted Aug 13, 2009 13:57 UTC (Thu) by michaeljt (subscriber, #39183)
In reply to: Moral rights - no problem, AFAICT by coriordan
Parent article: The unending story of cdrtools

I seem to recall (although I don't have the details) that there was a court decision in Germany which clarified the situation with moral rights and free software, basically stating that releasing your code under a free software licence was already a clear statement of how you wished your work to be used.

(Log in to post comments)

Posted Aug 13, 2009 18:57 UTC (Thu) by coriordan (guest, #7544) [Link]

If anyone has a link, that would be very interesting.

Moral rights - no problem, AFAICT

Posted Aug 13, 2009 21:59 UTC (Thu) by JoeBuck (subscriber, #2330) [Link]

I vaguely recall seeing the argument made that the (sometimes ignored) GPL requirement

a) You must cause the modified files to carry prominent notices stating that you changed the files and the date of any change.

is intended in part to address the moral rights issue: if my changes to your program break it, it should be made clear that you are not to blame.

I think that this was in some interminable debian-legal discussion where someone claimed that the above requirement curtails freedom somehow.