GPL compliance

[Daniel Carrera]

On Sun, 2006-02-07 at 00:32 +0200, Mario Vukelic wrote:
> > > (eg, he sold his rights or was an employee who
> > > never had any).
> > 
> > Not possible, as far as I know. 
> 
> VERY possible and in fact the case basically everywhere.

Actually... that may be "basically everywhere" in Common Law countries
(UK, USA, Common Wealth) but is not true in Civil Law countries (France,
Germany, Spain, Latin America) where authors have "moral rights" (droit
d'auteur). Those rights *cannot* be transferred or sold, and they are
part of the Berne convention.

The reasoning you posted is based around a Common Law understanding of
things. Germany has Civil Law, things are different there. You can sell
economic rights (so capitalism still works) but you always retain
authorship of your work, and some rights that go with it (not
necessarily the right to sell, I believe).

Cheers,
Daniel.
-- 
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