Re: Computer programs and employment

On Wed, 21 Apr 1999, Jon Bing <jon.bing[_at_]jus.uio.no> wrote:
>
> We are currently doing a study of transfer of copyright according to
> the national implementation of the EU protection of computer program
> directive (91/250/EU), which in art 2(3) make the default rule that
> copyright is transferred from employee to employer as part of the
> employment contract. As several other jurisdiction, the general rule
> in Norway is the opposite - the default is that only rights necessary
> for the employer to reach his (current) business objectives are
> transferred. We would welcome references to national case law which
> might give examples of the issue.

Australia's Copyright Act 1968 (Cth) is available at:

   http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/ca1968133/

S. 35 of the Australian copyright law governs ownership of original works:

   http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/ca1968133/s35.html

Computer programs are literary works (either directly or as compilations) under the definitions in s. 10:

   http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/ca1968133/s10.html#literary_work

> Also, according to Norwegian law, moral rights are not tranferred,
> while for instance in Danish and Swedish law also the moral rights
> are transferred to the employer. We would welcome references to any
> case law relating to moral rights in computer programs.

Australia has very little direct protection of moral rights in the Copyright Act. The major remedies apply only to tarnishing established reputations or trading on another's reputation under the common law of passing off or the consumer legislation against misleading and deceptive conduct in trade or commerce. It would only be in rare circumstances (e.g. somebody like Linus Torvald writing code for a company) where the reputation would be more likely to be that of the person writing the code rather than that of the company.

-- 
| Tim Arnold-Moore, Ph.D., LL.B., B.Sc. (Hons)
| Postal address:  Multimedia Database Systems, RMIT
|                  GPO Box 2476V
|                  Melbourne 3001
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|	simul iustus et peccator
<tja[_at_]mds.rmit.edu.au>