On Sun, Jul 10, 2011 at 6:30 AM, Alexander Thurgood <alex.thurg...@gmail.com> wrote: > Le 09/07/11 23:26, Bernhard Dippold a écrit : > > Hi all, > > Someone suggested I sling in some caselaw or other references on whether > copyright protection is available for UIs : > > US > Just one caselaw review : > http://www.legalserviceindia.com/articles/crind.htm > > Europe > In European Union Court of Justice Case C-393/09 : > http://kluwercopyrightblog.com/2011/03/24/protection-of-guis-graphical-user-interfaces-some-comments-about-the-ecj-%E2%80%98s-preliminary-ruling-in-bsa-v-ministervo-kultury/ > > involving the BSA against the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic > relating tp television broadcasting of user interface. > > What the latter ruling states is that copyright is not available under > the Computer Program Copyright Directive 91/250/EEC, as that is intended > to protect code per se. However, copyright is available for UIs under > the more general Copyright Directive 2001/29/EC, providing that they > meet the criteria for awarding copyright, i.e. originality, author's own > work, etc. > What the ruling also say is: "In a second question, the ECJ was asked whether television broadcasting of a GUI “constitutes communication to the public of a work protected by copyright within the meaning of Article 3(1) of Directive 2001/29”. The ECJ answers that if a GUI is displayed in the context of television broadcasting of a programme, television viewers receive a communication of that GUI in a passive manner, without having the possibility to interact with the program. According to the ECJ, as individuals do not have access to the essential element characterising the interface, that is to say, interaction with the user, “there is no communication to the public of the graphic user interface within the meaning of Article 3(1) of Directive 2001/29”."
That same rational apply to screen shoot in a documentation. iow common sens still prevail despite BSA's effort. > > So to all those naysayers who think that no-one sues anyone else over UI > elements - wake up, and take stock. Am I paranoid ? No, but people do > get sued. Do I represent the BSA ? No, but I know "peers" that do, and > believe me, love it or hate it, the BSA do sue people. > I'm sure that people sue, and some jurisdiction are indeed very prone to frivolous law suit... but does that means that we have to abdicate basic freedom and right ? If you are that concerned about liabilities, make sure that TDF itself does not author nor 'publish' any documentation... and have a money-less French loi-1901 association to do the publishing... The fact that TDF 'endorse' the content of a book does not make it liable for real or imaginary infringements in that book. Norbert -- Unsubscribe instructions: E-mail to steering-discuss+h...@documentfoundation.org Posting guidelines + more: http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Netiquette List archive: http://listarchives.documentfoundation.org/www/steering-discuss/ All messages sent to this list will be publicly archived and cannot be deleted
