On Thu, May 03, 2001 at 02:12:59PM +0100, Jaime E . Villate wrote:
This isn't true as far as the UK is concerned. Authorship provides one (in _most_ circumstances :) with first ownership of copyright. However, that copyright can be sold/bought, as it is just a commodity
There are two different things here "authorship" and "copyright"; the first one is unalienable, but the second one can be assigned to others (it originally belongs to the author).
Yes, but authorship buys you nothing except the original rights. Once copyright is transferred, authorship is fairly meaningless. "Moral rights", such as the right to be identified as the author of a computer program, don't apply (at least, not in the UK IIRC). Copyright is the important, overriding right with regards computer programs.
A good place to read about it is http://www.loc.gov/copyright/, and notice that even works published in Europe, by people living in Europe, can be registered at the Library of Congress, because there are signed treaties among U.S.A. and European countries.
Registration of copyright only entitles you to sue Americans though; you don't gain anything else :) As soon as you create the work, the work is copyrighted, whether you like it or not.
Cheers,
Alex.