Development of Creative Commons licenses

[Alex Schroeder <alex AT gnu.org>]

Mike Linksvayer schrieb:

> How is it actually decided what constitutes damage to reputation and 
> was does not (e.g., in Switzerland)?  Anything the author decides they 
> don't like?  A legislated standard with a list of reputation-damaging 
> associations, presumably including nazism?  Up to a judge's discretion 
> based on their intepretation of current social norms?

Not being a lawyer I don't know any cases I could cite.  I assume that 
it is up to the court to decide.  The law itself certainly doesn't list 
anything specific:

"Selbst wenn eine Drittperson vertraglich oder gesetzlich befugt ist, 
das Werk zu ändern oder es zur Schaffung eines Werkes zweiter Hand zu 
verwenden, kann sich der Urheber oder die Urheberin jeder Entstellung 
des Werks widersetzen, die ihn oder sie in der Persönlichkeit verletzt." 
-- Art 11 Ziff 2 URG, http://www.admin.ch/ch/d/sr/231_1/a11.html

"In der Persönlichkeit verletzten" would translate to "hurt in his or 
her personality" -- whatever that means exactly.

There's a list of definitions on this page: 
http://www.finanztip.de/recht/online/haftung-1.html (also all in 
German).  It goes into the differences between  true statements, 
opinions, slander, honor.  Some of what they write is this:

- You are protected against true statements if all they intend is to 
publicly expose things about a person.  The example given is to list the 
crimes somebody has committed (in public).  You are also protected 
against true statements revealing your secrets if you have reasons to 
keep them secret.  No example is given.

- You are protected against untrue statements in some cases even if they 
are not considered slander.  The example given is to twist somebody's 
words by misinterpreting a citation that is not a word-by-word citation 
of what you said.  You can protect yourself against this by indicating 
that you are attempting an interpretation.

- You are protected against distortions, ie. one-sided or incomplete 
reporting.  The example given is a report about some suspicion in a 
court case.  You have to report the points of view in defense of the 
subject.

It is quite frustrating for me to try and translate legal terms from 
German to English.  :-(

Alex.