(julien tayon julien@tayon.net):
There is a slight confusion in the speech of IP : copy-right is the protection made through a patent or a registration (c) (tm) (r), it is the historical anglo-saxon point of view (Bern Convention) author's right is the automatic protection of the creation (Geneva Convention) this conception comes from the 1789 revolution. It covers espcially the "moral right" (such as paternity) of the creation
FDL is based on the second concept. It is quite abusive (even though it is made in official translation of UNO or WTO) to translate droit d'auteurs in copyright.
You are both confused and mistaken here; "moral rights" ("droit d'auteurs") is a European concept not recognized by US law at all. The FDL is entirely based on US copyright law. We still follow the Berne convention rule that copyright exists automatically without registration (this is not new), but the copyright itself is still nothing but a simple monopoly on certain uses: reproduction, public performance, etc. The FDL grants an exception to that monopoly control to anyone who agrees to its terms. This is entirely a matter of using the government-granted power to achieve a specific end; it has nothing at all to do with author's rights.