Development of Creative Commons licenses

[Peter Brink <peter.brink AT brinkdata.se>]

drew Roberts skrev:
> For those ignorant on moral rights issues, in countries where they apply, are 
> they generally created by the copyright laws or by independant moral rights 
> laws or some ohter way?

Moral rights are a part of the copyright and thus regulated by copyright 
law.

> This is a statement which I believe from my reading, big boys in the Free 
> Software world would disagree with and I am not talking about the "Open 
> Source" issue.

A Open Source license is a contract, the provisions of which are 
governed by contract law - not copyright law. The terms of the license 
grants the licensee the right to exercise rights he would not have under 
copyright law. The work being licensed is still protected by copyright 
law and any use not mentioned in the license is thus still governed by 
copyright law.

> So, tou your understanding, could that US copyright holder, bring a moral 
> rights suit in Europe againse a fellow US citizen who has never been to 
> Europe?

This is a somewhat theoretical case but to the best of my knowledge:

What matters is where the work has been published. If a US citizen 
publishes a book in France and another US citizen claims that the book 
is an infringement the later most likely may sue the former in both the 
US and in France. Under French law he would then be able to assert moral 
rights.