Re: [OT] Droit d'auteur vs. free software?

[Arnoud Galactus Engelfriet <galactus@stack.nl>]

Stephane Bortzmeyer wrote:
> On Mon, May 12, 2003 at 07:47:12PM +0200,
>  Arnoud Galactus Engelfriet <galactus@stack.nl> wrote 
>  a message of 14 lines which said:
> > Stephane Bortzmeyer wrote:
> > > As I already explained several days ago, the right to prevent
> > > modifications does NOT exist for SOFTWARE. Author's rights on SOFTWARE
> > > are quite limited, even in Europe. 
> > 
> > Moral rights are excluded for software? 
> 
> I never said so (unless my typing is so bad that I wrote "excluded"
> when meaning "limited").

Sorry, I probably misunderstood you. You wrote above that
"the right to prevent modifications does NOT exist for SOFTWARE".
I took this to mean that you said that the moral right against
mutilations does not exist for software. 

> > Can you please give me a citation for that?
> 
> See my previous messages and the quotes from M?lanie
> Cl?ment-Fontaine's analysis.

On http://crao.net/gpl/gpl-I-5.html she writes:

  Le droit moral de l'auteur d'un logiciel est très faible[102]. En
  effet, l'article L121-7 du CPI dispose que "sauf stipulation
  contraire plus favorable à l'auteur d'un logiciel, celui-ci ne peut
  pas : 1°. S'opposer à la modification du logiciel par le
  cessionnaire des droits (...) lorsqu'elle n'est pas préjudiciable
  ni à son honneur ni à sa réputation. 2°. Exercer son droit de
  repentir ou de retrait". Néanmoins, le droit de paternité ainsi que
  le droit de divulgation subsiste.

Unfortunately my French is not very good, but as I understand
this, it says that the moral rights for software is very weak
under the French CPI (IP law). In the next sentence she cites
article L121-7 which says that the author cannot oppose
modifications by a licensee or assignee as long as those do
not harm the honor or reputation of the author ("lorsqu'elle
n'est pas"). She then goes on to argue that because of the
GPL's requirement to identify modifications, moral rights cannot
be harmed. So it would appear the dangers of these moral rights
is very limited in France.

Arnoud

-- 
Arnoud Engelfriet, Dutch patent attorney - Speaking only for myself
Patents, copyright and IPR explained for techies: http://www.iusmentis.com/