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

[Nathanael Nerode <neroden@twcny.rr.com>]

Arnoud Galatus Engelfriet said:

>Why do you think the concept is bogus? In principle I think it's
>a good idea to have something that prevents others from mutilating
>my work. The implementation sucks greatly though.

It's bogus because it impinges on free speech and gives heirs of the 
dead rights over the living.  (Just like excessive copyright durations 
do, but I digress...)

In the US, I could mutilate your work, but I couldn't pass it off as 
yours (that would be misrepresentation, possibly fraud).  If you were 
alive, I couldn't distort it to give you a bad reputation: that 
would be libel or slander, depending.  (Dead people have no 
right to defend their reputations in the US.)

That's plenty sufficient to protect authors' reputations and works' 
integrity without the need for an extra bogus 'author's rights' concept.  
I suspect this is why the US was able to say "We protect moral rights 
plenty for Berne."

--Nathanael