[LAD] students and copyright

[jaromil]

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re all,

On Sun, Aug 02, 2009 at 03:29:53PM +0200, Arnout Engelen wrote:
> On Sun, Aug 02, 2009 at 08:25:19AM -0400, Dave Phillips wrote:
> > Just out  of curiosity, how  many participants in  this discussion
> > are copyright holders ? How many of you have published works under
> > copyright ?
> 
> At least in the Netherlands (and i believe this goes for most if not
> all  of Europe),  it's pretty  hard not  to be  a  copyright holder:
> you're automatically a copyright holder when you create a nontrivial
> work. Registering  your copyright is  optional (but can  make things
> somewhat easier in case of a dispute).

as  an author  is  nice to  register  a copyright  without effort  and
institutional bureaucracy,  especially when not  aiming at restricting
people  rights with  your creations.  that's  the partial  win of  the
Creative Commons  licences in  the art world...

"registering your  copyright" for musicians  in a place like  Italy is
something  like "share  the income  of your  popularity with  the SIAE
mafia" which is going to send hit-squads all over the country to break
partys  whenever your songs  are singed  or played  - and  this really
happens believe me, even with  kids singing songs at birthday parties.
AFAIK the situation is very similar in Spain, with the SGAE.

the GNU  GPL agile  copyright registration aimed  at freedom  helps us
little fishes  survive despite the "marauding  giants" - institutions,
corporations, etc. as in a student - university relationship can be.

a common situation  of attribution of authorship in  Universities in a
place like  Italy, again: professors  (we call them barons)  often use
the production  of their students  for their "side jobs"  as corporate
consultants.   sometimes  organising little  "prizes"  (like trips  to
Apple  in Cupertino,  for  instance) meanwhile  sending  them all  the
projects  made by  students  for which  the  copyright and  production
agreement  is  very blurred:  the  name  (and  cigar smoking)  of  the
professor on  top with  the company sponsoring  the prizes and  then a
confusing list of "students" participating.

now you know a good reason why i've emigrated :)

ciao



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jaromil, dyne.org developer, http://jaromil.dyne.org

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