Text 31359, 60 rader
Skriven 2006-06-10 07:29:01 av Michiel van der Vlist (2:280/5555)
  Kommentar till text 31318 av Stewart Arnett (3:772/100)
Ärende: Canadian
================
Hello Stewart.

09 Jun 06 23:16, you wrote to FRANK SCHEIDT:

 SA> where the MVD ..v.. Shannon T becomes annoying, MVD is right ... and
 SA> ... wrong, so is Shannon. The question is, did MVD sign his
 SA> "copyright" over to FidoNews when he presented his article?

According to Dutch law, I did not.

 SA> If he did then he has no argument regarding Shannon making it
 SA> available on his site. The rights belong to FidoNews and it is up to
 SA> "FidoNews" to take it up with Shannon, it seems to me that is so in
 SA> this case.

Keep in mind that we are looking at it from the POV of Dutch law. This may be
different in other countries, iNcluding yours, but in Dutch law, one does not
sign over the copyright when submitting an article to a magazine. The copyright
remains with he author unless otherwise negotiated. The exception is when the
work is done by a paid employee in the time of the boss and on order of the
boss. In that case, the rights go to the employer. Obviously I am not a paid
employee. Also there were no negotiations about transfer of rights.

Fidonews does not even have legal status, it is not a legal body. FidoNews can
not hold copyrights. I sent my article to the *person* Björn Felten. I did not
sign over my copyrights to him.  I just sent him the article so that he could
hatch it in the fidonews file echo, the fidonews echomail conference and place
it on his website along with other articles.

 SA> Shannon is correct in that he hasn't violated MVD's intelectual rights
 SA> as he makes fair and open declaration that MVD is the author of the
 SA> article.

According to Dutch law, the copyright holder is the sole one to decide who may
and who may not distribute his work. I gave permissionm for distribution to
Björn, I did not give permission to Shannon. Giving full credit does not
absolve one from needing permission for (re)distribution.

 SA> He is wrong though, in that he has stepped (probably very mildly) on
 SA> someone toes regarding "copyright". Whose toes depends on whether MVD
 SA> did or did not give up his copyright when he gave the article to the
 SA> snooze.

According to Dutch law I did not give up my copyright. It is my understanding
that it is the same according to Swedish law.

Now Shannon could argue that he is only bound by US law and that US law allows
him to do what he does under the so called "fair use" clause. But then he
should back off from Björn and let him be judged by those in charge of
enforcing Swedish law.

 SA> But for heavens sake, I don't want (and I bet you don't either) to get
 SA> involved in this particular "WAR"

Sorry, by writing about it, you have involved yourself.

Michiel

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