Jean-Baptiste Soufron jbsoufron at
gmail.com wrote:
Well, once again, given the Bern convention any author
can enforce
its rights by himself even if his work is public domain or equivalent
in its own country. And the crown copyright office has no authority
on this.
What will they do if such a case happens ? What kind of
warranty do
they provide ?
They provide the fact that THEY ADMINISTER THE COPYRIGHT WITH AN
EXCLUSIVE LICENCE FROM THE HOLDER. "Where a work is made by Her
Majesty or by an officer or servant of the Crown in the course of his
duties" … "Her Majesty is the first owner of any copyright in the
work". That is a direct quote from the British copyright legislation.
All previous Crown copyright under previous copyright acts also has
Her Majesty as "the first owner of any copyright in the work".
To quote from the OPSI website:
"Crown Copyright
What is Crown copyright?
Copyright material which is produced by employees of the Crown in the
course of their duties. Therefore, most material originated by
ministers and civil servants is protected by Crown copyright.
What is our role in managing Crown copyright?
The Director of OPSI in her role as Queen's Printer has been appointed
by Her Majesty the Queen to manage all copyrights owned by the Crown
on Her Majesty's behalf. OPSI's Information Policy team lincenses on
the Queen's Printers behalf.
Crown copyright material originated by the Scottish Administration is
managed by the Queen's Printer for Scotland (QPS). The Information
Policy team of the Office of the QPS licenses on the QPS' behalf."
So the holder of the copyright, HM The Queen, has appointed the
Director of OPSI to administer the copyright. Since OPSI administer
the copyright THEY determine when and how it will be enforced. We have
a statement in an email from one of their staff that they consider all
Crown copyright in published materials to lapse at the same time
worldwide as it would in the UK, ie 50 years from publication.