From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Feb 9 14:30:39 2010 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 810BD1065672 for ; Tue, 9 Feb 2010 14:30:39 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from des@des.no) Received: from smtp.des.no (smtp.des.no [194.63.250.102]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3D9FF8FC0C for ; Tue, 9 Feb 2010 14:30:38 +0000 (UTC) Received: from ds4.des.no (des.no [84.49.246.2]) by smtp.des.no (Postfix) with ESMTP id 623471FFC51; Tue, 9 Feb 2010 14:30:37 +0000 (UTC) Received: by ds4.des.no (Postfix, from userid 1001) id 278FA844A6; Tue, 9 Feb 2010 15:30:37 +0100 (CET) From: =?utf-8?Q?Dag-Erling_Sm=C3=B8rgrav?= To: ticso@cicely.de References: <201002082216.o18MFtQN009973@fire.js.berklix.net> <86eikuk317.fsf@ds4.des.no> <20100209135713.GI81255@cicely7.cicely.de> Date: Tue, 09 Feb 2010 15:30:37 +0100 In-Reply-To: <20100209135713.GI81255@cicely7.cicely.de> (Bernd Walter's message of "Tue, 9 Feb 2010 14:57:13 +0100") Message-ID: <866366jxbm.fsf@ds4.des.no> User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/23.0.95 (berkeley-unix) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Cc: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org, "Julian H. Stacey" , mail25@bzerk.org Subject: Re: our little daemon abused as symbol of the evil X-BeenThere: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Technical Discussions relating to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 09 Feb 2010 14:30:39 -0000 Bernd Walter writes: > There is no copyright in Germany. Yes, there is. Germany is signatory to the Berne convention. > I'm not a lawyer, but there are many differences to copyright and I > think the main one is that the German system automatically protects > without the need to explicitly declare copyright. So does copyright. > E.g. there is not need to add copyright lines in sourcecode to prohibit > others to republish your code in Germany. It is not necessary anywhere in the world. It is still a good idea, just like it's a good idea to mark your laptop with indelible ink, even though stealing it is just as illegal if you don't. > Another difference (to my knowledge) is that the author never looses his > right (though there are a few rules about age and inheritage) - no > matter how much it is spread. The same goes for copyright (author's lifetime + 70 years) > The author can't even sell it, all he can do is sell the right to use it. I'm pretty sure there are provisions for "work for hire". > You can easily loose copyright and trademarks if you don't care about > it, but you don't loose your author rights. You can *not* lose copyright through dilution, only trademarks. At worst, you might lose an infringement suit if the defendant can show that you knew about *that particular case* long before you filed suit, but it would not invalidate your copyright, nor would it diminish your standing in other suits against other infringers. DES --=20 Dag-Erling Sm=C3=B8rgrav - des@des.no