question about mailing lists license ,

[Graham Todd]

On Tue, 3 Nov 2009 23:36:48 -0800
Nifty Ubuntu <niftyubuntu at niftyegg.com> uttered these words:

> Later down the list I see that the country involved is Iran.
> That fact poses some issues for individuals in the US.   The US
> government has imposed rules and regulations that currently
> vastly  complicate this issue for some members of this list.

I don't see that.  If you had written a book in the United States or
France (lets leave the UK out of this until later 8-]), you would
suppose that copyright would be honoured.  This is because those
countries have entered into international treaties, conventions on
copyright, and the World Trade Organisation (which makes certain
requirements on member countries to make legal restrictions on
copyright in their domestic legislation) require it.

If a copy of that book was then printed and published in the UK
without permission, the copyright owner (could be the author or the
publisher) could start an action for breach of copyright.  This is
because the UK has domestic legislation on copyright in a manner to
bring it into line with the Berne Convention on copyright.

However, if that book was then taken to Iran by someone who had bought
it in the UK and published by that person, could the copyright holder
take an action for breach of copyright?  As far as I have been able to
find out, the answer is that he/she couldn't, because Iran has no
domestic legislation on copyright that would satisfy the international
conventions and treaties that concern copyright, and anyway it is not a
signatory to those treaties and conventions.  That is not to say that
Iran does not have any domestic legislation on copyright, but that which
it has confers copyright on works created in Iran only and does not
extend copyright to works created outside Iran.

The issue is not that it is Iran, but that there should be a minimal
system of international law that requires all countries to adhere to
the same standard of domestic legislation on copyright no matter what
the jurisdiction.

> Since, Canonical, Ltd. is in GB I have no additional information
> to add.

We are bound by the same international conventions and treaties as
the United States and our laws on copyright are shaped by the provisions
of those conventions and treaties, in particular the Berne Convention,
as the United States.  However, the OP asked for guarantees that that
the people who write on this list hold copyright on their answers,
which I could not give.  He indicated that those answers were to be
republished in Iran, to which I tried to explain that copyright only
exists on works written and published in Iran according to its domestic
legislation, so the status of the posters in the U.S. or U.K. is
irrelevant.

-- 
Graham Todd