Re: [OT] Droit d'auteur vs. free software? (Was: query from Georg Greve of GNU about Debian's opinion of the FDL
On Wed, Apr 30, 2003 at 12:21:41PM +0100,
Edmund GRIMLEY EVANS <edmundo@rano.org> wrote
a message of 23 lines which said:
> We already have "OT" in the subject, so may I ask whether this "moral
> right" ceases with the death of the author,
For non-software, it was 50 years after the death of the author, it is
now 70 (corporations lobbied a lot for that). For software, I'm not
sure.
> or whether a hostile descendent can use it to prevent reproduction
> of the author's work?
Unfortunately, yes and it already happened. That 70-years rule is a
big problem.
> contract that tries to do so is unenforceable. However, presumably
> that doesn't stop company X from paying a certain sum every month to
> the author with the understanding that payments will cease if the
> author tries to assert her moral rights, or the company not suing the
> author so long as the author doesn't assert her moral rights.
And the Mafia can shoot you if you do not do what they want. Every
legal system has such limits.
> cases there is no contract that needs to be enforced by the courts, so
> any attempt by the legal system to prevent the "moral right" from
> being waived through contract law is bound to fail.
This is clearly wrong: authors win in court against their employers
often.
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