Till
Westermayer <till(a)tillwe.de> writes:
Depends. In the US, you can, in Germany, you
can't.
I guess you meant the "urheberrecht" in Germany - it is
conceptionally different from the US copyright. The one who
creates a work owns the "urheberrecht" and he or she can grant the
right to make use of the work to somebody else. That's it
roughly.
Yeah. And if a person in Germany creates a work, s/he will own the
urheberrecht and the copyright. Even if s/he seels the copyright, s/he
will still own the urheberrecht. As far as I know, this situation
doesn't exist in the USA, and I think some of the confusion about this
topic is related to that non-universal distinction.
Canada recognizes separate moral rights, but the implication of that is
unclear.
The sale of copyrights creates a contractual obligation, and may provide
for the buyer to have an exclusive right to publish.
What was interesting about the former US law that provided for renewals
after 28 years is that the right to renew was exclusively that of the
author. Thus, if he had received a bad deal when he sold the rights in
the first place that original deal expired, and he was free to negotiate
a better deal elsewhere. The company that had first bought the rights
did not have the right to renew.
Ec