Re: droit de suite

On Tue, 4 Apr 2000, Keith Taber <keith[_at_]drylaw.com> wrote:
>
> 1. The software contract is entered into at the begining of the
> relationship "voluntarily." This sort of legislation is shocking
> in that it comes in after a bargain has been made and changes
> the terms of that bargain.

Err... I don't have access to the EU Draft Directive which started all this. But I do, by accident, have with me the minutes of a meeting in December at which it was suggested that the _droit de suite_ could apply "only to living artists".

Equally, it *could* be legislated to apply only to works first sold after a given date.

And I *do* clearly recall reading that it is to have a *very* long transitional period before (full) implementation.

So, in effect, no uncertaintyas described is introduced into contractual arranements. Indeed in *practical* terms, changes in sales tax or VAT rates have more of the kind of post-hoc-revision effect described.

--
Mike Holderness
<mch[_at_]cix.compulink.co.uk>
http://www.poptel.org.uk/nuj/mike/

 The proposal of any new order or regulation of commerce which comes from 
 [the dealers] ought always to be listened to with great precaution,  and 
 ought never to be adopted till after having been long examined, not only 
 with the most scrupulous, but also the most suspicious attention. 
   It comes from an order of men whose interest is never exactly the same 
 with that of the public,  who have generally an interest to deceive  and 
 even to oppress the public,  and who accordingly have on many occasions, 
 both deceived and oppressed it. 
 ---------------------[Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, concluding Book I.]