I'm not familiar with the moral rights provisions in Australian law, but
the U.S. has the federal Visual Artists Rights Act (VAWA), and certain
states (including New York and California) have moral rights statutes.
VAWA only covers certain types of visual art. The rights are very
similar to what Mr. Schulze describes from Australian law. VAWA rights
cannot be transferred, only waived - they are personal to the artist. A
transfer or waiver of copyright rights is *not* a waiver of VAWA rights.
-Andy SkinnerLopata
Howard Schulze wrote:
> Australia has recently adopted this concept of "moral rights" as
> well. It is not a control as such of exploitation but rather a right
> to enable an artist for the life of the author only to control
> integrity of a work eg the right to have the authors identity to be
> shown on the work, the right to object to alteration of the work and
> the right to object to association of the work with others. This is
> entirely distinguished from economic rights which can be dealt with
> as with conventional IP rights.
> We are only now getting used to this concept. It is also very
> difficult for the moral rights to be contracted away.
> Howard Schulze
> On 05/10/2005, at 6:30 AM, JFN wrote:
>
>> It would seem a loose translation of "droit morale" -- the broader
>> rights accorded artists and authors under some European laws to
>> control the exploitation of their works. It comes, I think, from the
>> view that intellectual property ownership and control is a natural
>> right -- a view that is at odds with the American approach, which
>> views it as a statutory grant.
>>
>> John Noble
>>
>> At 4:45 PM -0400 10/3/05, S. Martin Keleti wrote:
>>
>>> At 11:50 AM 10/3/2005, josephpietrojeungriolo[_at_]gmail.com wrote:
>>>
>>>> I encountered a statement in license that I do not fully
>>>> understand and I am turning to this discussion forum for help in
>>>> interpreting the statement. As a gift, my wife gave me Chessmaster
>>>> 10th Edition. After long procrastination, I finally decided to
>>>> install it in my PC. As the installation was proceeding, the
>>>> license was presented to me. Because I was going to use the
>>>> software for my other project, I had to read license very
>>>> carefully. The portion that stopped me from continuing the
>>>> installation is this: It is not permitted: - To
>>>> make copies … - To operate … - To use it contrary to
>>>> morality or the laws in force, - To modify … -
>>>> To transmit … - To create …. - To decompile, reverse
>>>> engineer or disassemble … Exactly what does "contrary to morality"
>>>> mean? I searched Internet and found some references on it. But,
>>>> all of them are related to patent. I could not find anything
>>>> relating to the use of software. So, I sent a question on the
>>>> meaning of "contrary to morality" to Ubi Soft's on-line support.
>>>> (Ubi Soft is the manufacturer of Chessmaster 10th Edition.) After
>>>> hearing nothing from the on-line support for one or two weeks, I
>>>> decided to call Ubi Soft's support. I asked the person who
>>>> answered my call about the meaning of "contrary to morality". He
>>>> put me on hold for a while (I did not time it but I estimated that
>>>> it was one or two minutes). He then explained to me that it was a
>>>> blanket statement to prevent people from breaking any copyright
>>>> laws. I was tempted to ask him to elaborate that but knowing that
>>>> he was not expert in legal language, I thanked him for his time
>>>> and I hanged up phone. I thought more about what he said. If it
>>>> is really that obvious that "contrary to morality" means breaking
>>>> any copyright laws, why is this specific wording chosen over other
>>>> wording? Is this an example where Ubi Soft went overboard and
>>>> borrowed the language from patent? If "contrary to morality"
>>>> actually is applicable to Chessmaster, can anyone think of
>>>> examples where using Chessmaster is contrary to morality? Joseph
>>>> Pietro Riolo <josephpietrojeungriolo[_at_]gmail.com> <riolo[_at_]voicenet.com>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> My understanding of "contrary to morality" is that it is *broader*
>>> than simply contrary to copyright laws. I've seen the term in
>>> discussions of civil law jurisdictions (e.g., France, Germany,
>>> Switzerland), often synonymously with "contrary to public policy."
>>> I don't believe that it's limited to patent law, but that's just
>>> the area in which you came across it; it can come up in the field
>>> of contracts as well (for example, whether contracts relating to
>>> gambling are enforceable ), and I believe that it comes up in the
>>> area of free speech, too.
>>>
>>> Given that Ubisoft is headquartered in France (http://
>>> www.ubisoftgroup.com/AboutUbisoft/Default.aspx?cpid=181), its use
>>> of this term shouldn't be surprising. This kind of boilerplate
>>> probably finds its way into many other types of legal documents,
>>> whether or not any particular application is contemplated; but if
>>> you should come up with a use of Chessmaster that is contrary to
>>> morality, Ubisoft's covered. It may have other products that are
>>> susceptible to such illegal uses, and it's just easier to leave
>>> that clause in.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> S. Martin Keleti
>>> Cohen and Cohen
>>> 740 North La Brea Avenue
>>> Los Angeles, CA 90038-3339
>>> 323.938.5000
>>> 323.936.6354 fax
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>
> Howard Schulze
> Collison and Co
> 117 King William St
> Adelaide South Australia
> 61 8 8 2123133
> fax 61 8 82311273
> mob 0417203279
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Received on Fri Oct 07 2005 - 02:00:55 GMT
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