Xref: utzoo comp.sys.misc:1094 comp.misc:1838
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!mcvax!enea!tut!santra!clinet!lare
From: lare@clinet.FI (Lauri Hirvonen)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.misc,comp.misc
Subject: copyright laws
Message-ID: <589@clinet.FI>
Date: 3 Feb 88 07:28:42 GMT
Reply-To: lare@clinet.UUCP (Lauri Hirvonen)
Organization: City Lines Oy, Helsinki, Finland
Lines: 54
Summary: new laws needed
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Some time ago, I did send a message to the net talking about is a programmer
just selling his time to software company or an artist?

It was also placed in some local BBS's in Finland.

Here is a reply received from a person working in the largest computer
company of Finland. It is his personal opinion, but he is known to be
well informed on these topics.

 SW-COPYRIGHT PROBLEM, by Esko Hirvonen, Nokia Corporation, Finland.

    1. The ultimate goal of patentlaw and other intellectual-
       right-laws for USEFUL products is the benefit of the
       mankind. It motivates the inventors to publish their
       inventions if they have a monopoly for their inventions
       during a limited period. Otherwise they probably use their
       inventions in secret, which limits technology transfer.

    2. The ultimate purpose of the copyright laws is to protect
       the honor and publishing rights of the CREATOR of an
       ART-WORK. The value of art is not time-dependent and
       copyrights are usually valid 50 years after the death of
       the creator. Only the appearance of the art-work can be
       copyrighted, not the idea or structure of it.

    3. Common sense agrees that the original owner of the
       ART-WORK is the creator and the owner of an useful
       product is the risktaker, usually the salarypayer of
       the inventor.

    4. The problem with SW-rights is that the value of the
       product depends how USEFUL it is, not how beautiful it
       is. However for practical reasons the copyright law is
       used in most countries to protect SW. This creates new
       problems. The CREATIVE work of a SW can be done and is
       mostly done in definition stage, which can not be protected
       and the appearance, which can be protected is done in
       the coding stage, where very little or no creativity is
       needed. In this case it is very difficult to find a
       copyright owner at all. This is a fundamental limitation
       of the copyright law in SW-protection and can not be
       avoided by minor modifications in the law-text.

    5. I anticipate, that a separate law for SW-protection
       will emerge within 10 years. SW-protection belongs to
       industrial-rights, it is not like art-work-copyrighting,
       where the artists can for example claim extra pay for
       reusage of the products.

    6. In SW trade definite ownership of the product for the
       seller is necessary. If the law in some countries does
       not support this, big companies do not buy or make
       SW-products in these countries.