On Thu, Mar 8, 2012 at 10:53 PM, John Cowan <co...@mercury.ccil.org> wrote: [...] > I think this language is much too strong. It's true that there is no > treaty or statutory language allowing abandonment, ...
Certainly there is statutory language, e.g.: http://www.copyright.gov/reports/exsum.html "Waiver of Moral Rights in Visual Artworks Executive Summary Introduction The Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990 (VARA) directed the Copyright Office to conduct a study to assess for Congress the impact of the waiver provisions contained in that legislation. On December 1, 1992, the Copyright Office submitted to Congress an Interim Report summarizing the responses to its earlier Request for Information and outlining other proposed inquiries and avenues of research it would undertake on this question. This final report represents the completed Office study responsive to Congress' request. I. THE VISUAL ARTISTS RIGHTS ACT OF 1990 In 1990, Congress for the first time legislated limited moral rights of attribution and integrity to authors of narrowly defined works of visual arts. These rights, following the model suggested in the international Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, mirror rights granted to authors by most industrialized nations of the world. They guarantee to authors of so-called fine arts and exhibition photographs the right to claim or disclaim authorship in a work; limited rights to prevent distortion, mutilation, or modification of a work; and the right, under some circumstances, to prevent destruction of a work that is incorporated into a building. After hearing testimony from artists' representatives, commercial users and other interested parties, Congress determined that the artists' rights should not be absolute, but that they should be tempered by commercial realities, provided that provisions were enacted to insulate authors from being unduly influenced to give away their new-found rights. Thus, the legislation provides for waiver of these moral rights, but only by a signed, written agreement specifying the work and the precise uses to which a waiver applies. ..." http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/106A "Transfer and Waiver.— (1) The rights conferred by subsection (a) may not be transferred, but those rights may be waived if the author expressly agrees to such waiver in a written instrument signed by the author. Such instrument shall specifically identify the work, and uses of that work, to which the waiver applies, and the waiver shall apply only to the work and uses so identified. In the case of a joint work prepared by two or more authors, a waiver of rights under this paragraph made by one such author waives such rights for all such authors. (2) Ownership of the rights conferred by subsection (a) with respect to a work of visual art is distinct from ownership of any copy of that work, or of a copyright or any exclusive right under a copyright in that work. Transfer of ownership of any copy of a work of visual art, or of a copyright or any exclusive right under a copyright, shall not constitute a waiver of the rights conferred by subsection (a). Except as may otherwise be agreed by the author in a written instrument signed by the author, a waiver of the rights conferred by subsection (a) with respect to a work of visual art shall not constitute a transfer of ownership of any copy of that work, or of ownership of a copyright or of any exclusive right under a copyright in that work." _______________________________________________ License-discuss mailing list License-discuss@opensource.org http://projects.opensource.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/license-discuss