lare@clinet.FI (Lauri Hirvonen) (02/03/88)
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Some time ago, I did send a message to the net talking about is a programmer
just selling his time to software company or an artist?
It was also placed in some local BBS's in Finland.
Here is a reply received from a person working in the largest computer
company of Finland. It is his personal opinion, but he is known to be
well informed on these topics.
SW-COPYRIGHT PROBLEM, by Esko Hirvonen, Nokia Corporation, Finland.
1. The ultimate goal of patentlaw and other intellectual-
right-laws for USEFUL products is the benefit of the
mankind. It motivates the inventors to publish their
inventions if they have a monopoly for their inventions
during a limited period. Otherwise they probably use their
inventions in secret, which limits technology transfer.
2. The ultimate purpose of the copyright laws is to protect
the honor and publishing rights of the CREATOR of an
ART-WORK. The value of art is not time-dependent and
copyrights are usually valid 50 years after the death of
the creator. Only the appearance of the art-work can be
copyrighted, not the idea or structure of it.
3. Common sense agrees that the original owner of the
ART-WORK is the creator and the owner of an useful
product is the risktaker, usually the salarypayer of
the inventor.
4. The problem with SW-rights is that the value of the
product depends how USEFUL it is, not how beautiful it
is. However for practical reasons the copyright law is
used in most countries to protect SW. This creates new
problems. The CREATIVE work of a SW can be done and is
mostly done in definition stage, which can not be protected
and the appearance, which can be protected is done in
the coding stage, where very little or no creativity is
needed. In this case it is very difficult to find a
copyright owner at all. This is a fundamental limitation
of the copyright law in SW-protection and can not be
avoided by minor modifications in the law-text.
5. I anticipate, that a separate law for SW-protection
will emerge within 10 years. SW-protection belongs to
industrial-rights, it is not like art-work-copyrighting,
where the artists can for example claim extra pay for
reusage of the products.
6. In SW trade definite ownership of the product for the
seller is necessary. If the law in some countries does
not support this, big companies do not buy or make
SW-products in these countries.keld@diku.dk (Keld J|rn Simonsen) (02/06/88)
In article <589@clinet.FI> lare@clinet.FI (Lauri Hirvonen) writes: > SW-COPYRIGHT PROBLEM, by Esko Hirvonen, Nokia Corporation, Finland. The comments comes from an employee of a large employer. There are different sides of this problem, and what the employer side brings forward does not always hold in court. I have some comments to the article based on the fact that the copyright laws I know is adhering to the same international convention as the Finnish laws, namely the revised Berner convention of 24th July 1971. Berner union countries consists of most of the world, including Europe and Canada, but not USA. > 3. Common sense agrees that the original owner of the > ART-WORK is the creator and the owner of an useful > product is the risktaker, usually the salarypayer of > the inventor. The Danish Supreme court has judged otherwise in a case on the copyrights of journalists. It is the journalist who has the copyright not the newspaper. By analogy this also counts for programmers. > 5. I anticipate, that a separate law for SW-protection > will emerge within 10 years. SW-protection belongs to > industrial-rights, it is not like art-work-copyrighting, > where the artists can for example claim extra pay for > reusage of the products. The Danish parliament has discussed this. The only new paragraph with special treatment of software in mind were, that you were not allowed to make your personal copies by a third party. Remember, you are allowed to make a few copies for personal use of all copyrighted material. That is for free, and the rule is common to all Berner Union countries. Copyright experts expect that the international protection of software will continue to be governed by international copyright (Berner) conventions. > 6. In SW trade definite ownership of the product for the > seller is necessary. If the law in some countries does > not support this, big companies do not buy or make > SW-products in these countries. Copyright remains with the creator, unless this is transferred to somebody else. By agreement the firm can get the copyright from the creator and thus have full rights to the work. There is a Danish law on employee's rights to inventions, of which I do not know the international relations. It says that an employee is entitled to a reasonable sum if his work generates a bigger profit than reasonably expected. This should also apply to programs which can be regarded as inventions. Keld Simonsen keld@diku.dk