In other words, DRM from top to bottom ...
In other words, DRM from top to bottom ...
Posted Nov 24, 2009 12:57 UTC (Tue) by forthy (guest, #1525)In reply to: In other words, DRM from top to bottom ... by brinkmd
Parent article: Linux Implements Support For Trusted Computing, Safer Online Transactions (The Gov Monitor)
The FSF probably won't liberate you, slave, but in general, the GPL also protects you as employee. A team-member of the Gforth team once ported Gforth inside G&D to a smartcard, and since Gforth was under GPL, and he demanded to get the modified sources outside, he could do so. And this is a extremely secretive and security-sensitive company, with very tight control, and separated networks and so on.
You, as employee, have the same rights to get the source code under GPL as any other person which obtains the binary. Your employment contract, your NDA, they all don't cover this. You may refrain from doing so as "gentlemen agreement", but it is not binding, and it shouldn't harm you if you don't follow this agreement. I.e. if you work on an in-house application using a modified GPL program, you don't have to take the source outside, but if you do, your boss can't do anything about it. It's your right. At least under German law, where copyright bases on a non- and the company only owns an exclusive license - which it can't for a GPL program.
Posted Nov 24, 2009 13:11 UTC (Tue)
by niner (subscriber, #26151)
[Link] (3 responses)
Be careful! A wrong understanding of what this license can do and does may
Posted Nov 24, 2009 18:26 UTC (Tue)
by drag (guest, #31333)
[Link]
I think as a employee usually you do a NDA or something like that were you
If your a contractor then that is much more out in the open. I suppose most
Now there are some dirty tricks that are common among Universities and
So what happens at a lot of those places is that Universities will take
So if your a employee or, especially a student, and you want to do
Posted Nov 26, 2009 20:31 UTC (Thu)
by anton (subscriber, #25547)
[Link] (1 responses)
Posted Nov 26, 2009 21:23 UTC (Thu)
by niner (subscriber, #26151)
[Link]
If I may cite Austrian law on this:
In English (for anyone interested): if a computer program is written by an
http://www.ris.bka.gv.at/Dokument.wxe?Abfrage=Bundesnorme...
Some further explanation:
Posted Nov 24, 2009 15:40 UTC (Tue)
by brinkmd (guest, #45122)
[Link]
I am not sure your interpretation of the law is correct. It's certainly complicated, and the complications are one reason the FSF stays out of this issue. Also, it may be significantly different in Germany and the US, and the FSF is a US based organization (with some quite US-centric views on politics).
In any case, the comment I was replying to was directed at the consumer protection clauses against DRM in the GPLv3, and that specifically addresses "consumer products" only ("either (1) a "consumer product", which means any
In other words, DRM from top to bottom ...
produce at work belongs to the company you work for. That's written in
German and Austrian law. If this code is an extension of a GPL'ed program,
that is still true. You may not take this code and use it for private
purposes _unless_ the company distributes the code and or binaries of the
resulting program. In this case you as a private person may obtain a copy
and get the full rights granted by the GPL. But the company has to
distribute it. If it does this development solely for in-house use, you
have no rights because the GPL explicitly only covers distribution. It
says something like "if you _distribute_ the program, you have to grant
these rights to the one you distribute it to".
lead to serious trouble.
IANAL.
In other words, DRM from top to bottom ...
agree that all work done at work is your employer's copyright. I don't
think that is entirely necessary from a legal standpoint, but it helps make
sure people understand what is going on.
of the time contractors will provide copyright transfers as part of their
service, but that is really up to the contractor and the employer to
negotiate and can go either way.
whatnot. A lot of those people feel that by providing a educational
environment they are providing a community service so that things like
doing software patents is just natural for them to do to raise capital. A
sense of entitlement.
student software and inventions and get software patents and take control
of the copyrights. A few times students have tried to fight them, but if
they are doing it as part of classwork and are doing it using facilities
provided by the university then I think they generally lose.
something on your own you can later profit from or whatever then make sure
to do it on your own time with your own equipment or you may lose control
of it.
In Austrian law (and a number of other European countries) the
Urheberrecht belongs to the author and is not transferable (unless the
author dies). There are also the Verwertungsrechte (usage rights),
and they can be licensed and maybe transferred to others, but that's
up to contracts. There is no automatic transfer of any rights by law,
and when I asked the legal department of TU Wien about this, the lady
at the other end was very surprised about my question; the idea of
such an automatic transfer was obviously completely alien to her.
In other words, DRM from top to bottom ...
In other words, DRM from top to bottom ...
"§ 40b. Wird ein Computerprogramm von einem Dienstnehmer in Erfüllung
seiner dienstlichen Obliegenheiten geschaffen, so steht dem Dienstgeber
hieran ein unbeschränktes Werknutzungsrecht zu, wenn er mit dem Urheber
nichts anderes vereinbart hat."
employee while fulfilling his duties to his employer, the employer gets
unlimited usage rights unless he arranged something different with the
program's creator.
http://www.fnm-austria.at/erf/info/de:Arbeitsergebnisse
In other words, DRM from top to bottom ...
tangible personal property which is normally used for personal, family,
or household purposes, or (2) anything designed or sold for incorporation
into a dwelling.")