Re: [OT] Droit d'auteur vs. free software? (Was: query from Georg Greve of GNU about Debian's opinion of the FDL

[Henning Makholm <henning@makholm.net>]

Scripsit Edmund GRIMLEY EVANS <edmundo@rano.org>

> We already have "OT" in the subject, so may I ask whether this "moral
> right" ceases with the death of the author, or whether a hostile
> descendent can use it to prevent reproduction of the author's work?

FUD. Moral rights do not allow a hostile descendant to prevent
reproduction, once the right to reproduce has been granted.

Here is my translation of the relevant section of Danish copyright
law:

  §3. The author can demand to be identified in accordance to what
      good practise requires, on copies of the work as well as when
      it is made available to the public.

   sub 2. The work must not be changed or made available to the public
      in a way or in a context that violates the author's literary or
      artistic reputation or character.

   sub 3. The author cannot waive his rights according to this
      section, except as regards uses that in limited circumstances or
      quantities.

None of these is any problem for free software. Naming the author is
commonly demanded by licenses, even BSD-style ones. And I don't think
that the author of a piece of software has any "literary or artistic
reputation or character" connected with it. Anyway, by voluntarily
releasing his work under a free license, the author unmistakenly
states that his literary or artistic reputation cannot be considered
violated by any form of derived work.

-- 
Henning Makholm             "And when we retire, we will write the gospels."