GnuTLS, copyright assignment, and GNU project governance

Posted Dec 21, 2012 18:06 UTC (Fri) by gebi (guest, #59940)
Parent article: GnuTLS, copyright assignment, and GNU project governance

Really nice article!

I've just one question about copyright assignment...

Here in Austria it's impossible to assign copyright away from the author, it's forbidden by law!
I mean, you can do it but the contract doing so gets worthless.

Anyone thought about that one for a second? Because AFAIK Austria is not the only country in the EU with such law's in place.

GnuTLS, copyright assignment, and GNU project governance

Posted Dec 21, 2012 20:25 UTC (Fri) by pkern (subscriber, #32883) [Link]

There's no such thing as copyright in the first place. However you can transfer basically all rights that pertain to this discussion even in non-Common Law countries. Those non-copyright rights even grant you the right to sue others using the work in a non-compliant way. But it's not a copyright assignment in any case, that's true.

GnuTLS, copyright assignment, and GNU project governance

Posted Dec 22, 2012 9:34 UTC (Sat) by atai (subscriber, #10977) [Link] (2 responses)

that's interesting. So how do companies gain copyright ownership of their employees' work in Austria?

GnuTLS, copyright assignment, and GNU project governance

Posted Dec 22, 2012 13:48 UTC (Sat) by mpr22 (subscriber, #60784) [Link] (1 responses)

Via explicit work-for-hire provisions (basically: if you wrote the program as part of your normal duties of employment it's a work for hire unless you have a written agreement with your employer to the contrary) in the section of the Urheberrechtsgesetz pertaining to computer software (which include permitting the company to subsequently transfer its rights so granted to another party).

GnuTLS, copyright assignment, and GNU project governance

Posted Dec 23, 2012 15:53 UTC (Sun) by ceplm (subscriber, #41334) [Link]

The difference which is often lost on non-civil-law-countries people is the split between copyright itself (i.e., the fact I am the author, right to avoid my work in dishonesting way, and some other bits) and my right to economically exploit my work (e.g., ask for royalties). These two are separable in the civil law countries, and although the former cannot be transferred and assigned ever, the latter can be, and actually it expressly is by the created-on-job provisions (if you create the work as part of fulfilling your obligations from the employment, your employer is the automatic assignee of the economic rights to such work).

However, I don’t think in the end, this distinction is that important, and it can be covered mostly by the salvator clause (“If any portion of this section is held invalid or unenforceable …”).