Moral rights are from the Civil Code/French tradition. We don't do
moral rights, although certain interests keep trying. Moral rights in
the copyright context (I am unaware that they exist outside copyright)
are a right of attribution and a right of integrity. We don't have
these in the US tradition. I could live with a right of attribution,
kind of, but the integrity right would be a disaster. The fact the US
and UK traditions don't have these kinds of copyright notions is one
of the things that is good in the context of information freedom.
I see the wikipedia page on moral rights lists them with natural or
inalienable rights. My guess is that's a new notion, possibly part of
a scheme to confuse the concept of moral rights in copyright law with
the most fundamental rights. Copyright is a statutory right in
America, which means Congress could, if it had the will, change
copyright to suit the digital age -- so just keep that distinction
clear. Far better to talk natural or inalienable rights than use a
terminology that can give us a lot of trouble in copyright.
Seth
On Tue, Jun 19, 2012 at 4:40 AM, Andrew Haley <aph(a)redhat.com> wrote:
On 06/18/2012 06:18 PM, Adam Williamson wrote:
> I hesitate to put words in people's mouths, and correct me if I'm
> wrong, but it reads to me as if Jay and others are arguing from an
> incorrect premise. That premise is to assume that there is a
> God-given right for people who own computing devices to retrofit
> alternative operating systems onto those devices.
>
> I want to put it out there that this is _not true_.
The problem with this claim is that it equivocates on the meaning of
"a right". There are at least two definitions of "a right" in this
sense: moral rights and legal rights. These are not the same. Moral
rights are not in the gift of any Government. While we may not have a
legal right to run whatever software we wish on hardware we own, it's
not at all unreasonable to claim a moral right to do so.
Andrew.
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