2007/6/4, Lars Aronsson <lars(a)aronsson.se>se>:
Klaus Graf wrote:
In Germany it is not possible to waive all
copyright personality
rights (Urheberpersönlichkeitsrecht).
This is an interesting statement that non-lawyers keep repeating.
(Another one is that "a public domain doesn't exist" in Europe.)
How does that work if an employee is writing a manual for Audi or
Siemens? Can the company not edit that manual for fear of harming
the personal rights of the original author?
The author has the publication rights. Thus, whether or not a company
can use the copyrighted works of an employee or not has to adressed in
his working contract, which it usually is. What the company may not do
is change the work contrary to the original idea of the author, as
this is not touched by publication rights. So, if you write an
antinazi-piece and your company decides to rewrite it so it becomes a
nazi-piece instead, you can sue them.
In Wikipedia, publication rights are regulated via the GNU-FDL.
Nevertheless, the author retains the right to publish his work in
other circumstances, under different licences and he retains his right
to sue anybody, who turns his work contrary to his original idea.
Does the original
author get the right to be mentioned as the author of the manual?
As said above, he retains the publication rights. If he does not
require you to name his name, that's it. If you use the text under the
GNU-FDL, simply follow the GNU-FDL. What you may not do, is name
somebody else as the creator.
Bye,
Philipp