Lovenworth and Dyas, two members of corporate law firm Dewey
Ballantine, tackle unresolved issues in an essay on enforcing
collaborative copyright (and suggest the need for a new class of
copyright. (Are they waiting for a GNU-blessed Wiki license to
emerge?) Someone should ask for a freely licensed version of the
essay...
"As ownership of collaborative works becomes increasingly diluted, a
common point of enforcement becomes more necessary. One solution is
to treat collaborative works in a similar manner as a joint work so
that certain contributors to the collaborative work can enforce its
copyright. Such a solution would do nothing, however, to ensure that
those contributors act with the interests of the collaboration in
mind. Consequently, until copyright law catches up with the
developments of the modern world, the ability to enforce copyright in
collaborative works will remain limited at best."
http://news.tmcnet.com/news/2006/09/27/1937133.htm
http://www.deweyballantine.com/home1024.cfm
--SJ