[MUD-Dev] Semi-OT: International intellectual property right (was: [MUD-Dev] Custom Server Roll Call?) Custom Server Roll Call?)

Fri May 14 01:04:51 CEST 1999

I've read the norwegian copyright laws, and looked at some EC and
international stuff today. Actually, this theme is rather complicated. :) 
Anyway, the EC define sourcecode and objectcode as literary works in some
GATT 94 stuff, Document 294A1223(17), I guess this is some sort of
ratification.

<<Article 10:
Computer Programs and Compilations of Data
1. Computer programs, whether in source or object code, shall be protected
as literary works under the Berne Convention (1971).
2. Compilations of data or other material, whether in machine-readable or
other form, which by reason of the selection or arrangement of their
contents constitute intellectual creations shall be protected as such. Such
protection, which shall not extend to the data or material itself, shall be
without prejudice to any copyright subsisting in the data or material
itself.>>

Thus the Bern convention applies I think
(http://www.wipo.org/eng/iplex/wo_ber0_.htm). 

But there are *SCREAM* probably other treaties and conventions that apply
(WTO?)... Dunno where the US are in this mess! Frankly, I don't know which
countries who have signed Bern and the other stuff either. :)

Just to illustrate some relevance. According to norwegian copyright law, it
only applies to works of norwegian origin. However, according to Bern (I
only read the first page):

  <<Authors shall enjoy, in respect of works for which they are protected
under this Convention, in countries of the Union other than the country of
origin, the rights which their respective laws do now or may hereafter grant
to their nationals, as well as the rights specially granted by this
Convention.>>

== I care less about foreign law, but have to worry about Bern + norwegian
law, unless if I only build on norwegian works, in which case I can forget
about Bern.

  <<The enjoyment and the exercise of these rights shall not be subject to
any formality; such enjoyment and such exercise shall be independent of the
existence of protection in the country of origin of the work. Consequently,
apart from the provisions of this Convention, the extent of protection, as
well as the means of redress afforded to the author to protect his rights,
shall be governed exclusively by the laws of the country where protection is
claimed.>>

== If I am to publish in some country X, I will have to worry about law's of
X + Bern if I break copyright of a work with origin in my own or some other
country beside X. So, what happens when I publish to the whole world??? I
dunno. I could be in a legal mess... :(

  <<The country of origin shall be considered to be [...] in the case of
works first published in a country of the Union, that country; in the case
of works published simultaneously in several countries of the Union which
grant different terms of protection, the country whose legislation grants
the shortest term of protection;>>

Simultanously means within 30 days. Norway grants 70 years of protection
after the authors death. So if I put something on several ftp servers, then
the country of origin will be the country which awards least protection,
which means that I am not covered by Bern in that country. Strange. So
really, only publish in your own country during the first month, or in
another country with better protection. :P

Or maybe not:
<<the communication by wire or the broadcasting of literary or artistic
works, the exhibition of a work of art and the construction of a work of
architecture shall not constitute publication.>>

Is the Internet communication by wire? But storage on a harddisk probably
constitutes publication, or? Are there any later conventions that overrule
this? :)

Anyway, for MUDs running on a norwegian server then I guess I can forget
about other countries and only worry about norwegian copyright law + Bern.
Unless it is broadcasting, then I have to look at another convention
(Paris?)... I guess it is... I noticed that we have some provisionons for TV
broadcasted from sattelites...  However, can they charge me, when I don't
own any property outside Norway? I guess they could deny me access to the
country or something... :/

Gee, I think I will have to study the WIPO site more closely. MUDs could be
both a literary work as well as broadcasting!

"Jon A. Lambert" wrote:
> Yes.  It is difficult to distinguish especially in the case of FRPGs
> which blend works of reference with works of literature.  Note that U.S.
> law makes a strong distinction between the two uses.  The former is
> covered under "fair use", the latter isn't.  Which is why you are on much
> shakier ground basing your mud on the books of Ann Rice or Stephen
> Donaldsen than you are basing your mud on AD&D or Rolemaster.  This is
> why TSR was justified in targeting Forgotten Realms or Dark Sun muds.
> These are works of literature.

Oh, but according to Bern ;):

 <<The expression "literary and artistic works" shall include every
production in the literary, scientific and artistic domain, whatever may be
the mode or form of its expression, such as [...]>>

And you probably have something similar to this (norwegian law): A work may
not be made availble for the public using a title, name or mark which may
cause confusion with an already published work or author.

> the works.  I can't xerox off a copy of Stephen King's "The Stand" and
> give it to a friend even though I don't benefit.  Why, because the author
> suffers damage.

There are some special provision in norwegian copyright for personal
nonprofit copying, provided the copy cannot be mistaken for an original, and
not made available outside the private domain. (sadly, they appended
software to the list of exceptions) Dunno what Bern says though :). There
are taxes on tapes and devices and such to compensate for this. Actually
there are several exceptions, inlcluding church mass, nonprofit youth
arrangements, nonprofit education, handicapped translations, and God's know
what!

> OTOH, I can copy a New York Times article and give it to
> a friend, even though NYT may lose revenue under "fair use".  This is
> traditional been held up specific to newspapers and magazines.  BTW, this
> is about to be retested in court in Los Angelos over web issues.  Should
> be interesting. :)

Bern:
<<The protection of this Convention shall not apply to news of the day or to
miscellaneous facts having the character of mere items of press
information.>>

> > If you take tables of coefficients
> > from a complex gaming manual and use them, then it for sure is a copyright
> > violation.  Because you are not allowed to make a copy or a translation
> > without permission!  Modification is not enough.  It still is a derived
> > work.
> 
> Nope.  I strongly disagree.  There isn't any precedent here in the U.S.
> There is NO protection for using the DATA from in a published table in a
> software program.  This is definitely work of reference material.

Maybe. Actually, I discovered that in Norway there is a special paragraph
that grants 15 years + 15 years after publication protection for formulas,
tables, catalog, databases and programmes if it contains considerable
amounts of information or has been costly to produce. This also cover
reproduction of insignificant amounts, if that act makes the work lose it's
value. (or something like that, maybe you have similar paragraphs).

We also have something called "pattern protection", kinda like a patent, but
for patterns. Not trademark, but protection of a new design.

I have discovered some new stuff (in norwegian law) pertaining to computers
though which cannot be overruled by agreement/license etc. This covers the
rights to make backups, to read, observer, examine, test how a program works
in order to understand the ideas and working principles, and
reverseengineering in order to determine interfaces.  Hmm... I think I will
sign up to some NDA's.

--
Ola Fosheim Groestad,Norway      http://www.stud.ifi.uio.no/~olag/

PS.
In my quest for property rights, I came over a "highest court" ruling that
was funny to read. It was a company called TOP-TOY sueing (believe it or
not) a company called Cousin Clown for using the term "Supertoy" on their
window. Pages upon pages about reasoning about this and stuff like "Cousin
Clown's use of the term supertoy..." :-)  Cousin Clown had to remove the
word from their window and pay about $12K to cover legal expenses (half the
claim). Not that bad, considering that this silly issue had been treated in
two courts prior to this! *rant* *rant*

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