question about mailing lists license ,

[Graham Todd]

On Fri, 30 Oct 2009 21:20:07 +0330
a dehqan <dehqan65 at gmail.com> uttered these words:

> Do mailing list own person
> answer copyright ? please give a voucher for your claim .
[snipped]

A little bit of googling would have given you this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_in_Iran

As I understand it, you are asking if the list owner holds copyright or
individual posters hold copyright to their posts.  The answer is
simple: the United States and Britain are signatories to the Berne
Convention and have domestic legislation binding them to that
Convention: the differences of the actual copyright provisions in the
domestic legislation.  Knowing the intricacies of copyright law is the
province of lawyers, for although the Berne Convention allows a certain
minimum, the actual provisions may depend on the domestic legislation
in force.

Now, I understand you are hoping to write a book on Ubuntu, to be
published in Iran or for Iranians.  Iran is currently *NOT* a signatory
to the Berne Convention, the WIPO Copyright Treaty, or the World Trade
Organisation (WTO) which has some recommendations that member states
should pass into domestic legislation, but as Iran is not a member,
these recommendations do not apply there.

Iran does have some laws on copyright, but these apply to works written
in Iran *only*; works coming from outside Iran are not copyrightable
within Iran.  This list is registered as coming from the United States,
and therefore cannot be copyrighted in Iran; if your book is written in
Iran, I would suggest requesting permission to reproduce any
information you get from each post you wish to reproduce, but also
consulting an Iranian copyright law specialist.  If you are writing the
book outside Iran, it will not have copyright in Iran; however,
Creative Commons licences *MAY* be enforceable in Iran, and this *MAY*
be an alternative way to go, but it requires an Iranian lawyer to make
sure.

Finally, to your substantive question: is the list owner the person who
has the copyright of this list.  In countries who are signatories to
the Berne Convention *AND* had the provisions pass into domestic
legislation, it is the the writers of the post who hold copyright.  For
other jurisdictions, you will have to consult a local specialist in
copyright law.

-- 
Graham Todd
Please, no MS-Office documents -
http://linux.sgms-centre.com/advocacy/no-ms-office.php

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