D logo copyright

[Sönke Ludwig via Digitalmars-d]

Am 15.07.2014 13:13, schrieb Alix Pexton:
> I've been researching what is necessary to transfer the copyright of the
> D logo to Digital Mars, which is complicated by international issues.
>
> It seems that the term "copyright" is often aliased to the German
> "Deutsches Urheberrecht" which is what we call the "moral rights of the
> author" in the UK.
>
> This is something very different from copyright as it is inalienable
> from the originating creator and not something that can be transferred
> other that by inheritance.
>
> This makes me wonder if previous attempts to negotiate a new copyright
> for the logo have gone unanswered because the terminology used has lost
> something in translation.
>
> Do any of our native German D users know what the right terminology for
> the international concept of "copyright" is?
>
> European copyright law is something that is currently being debated for
> unification and there is no actual legislation in place so any
> negotiations regarding the logo have to be conducted based on the common
> ground between German and U.S. laws.
>
> A...

As far as I know, this is the "Verwertungsrecht" (roughly the right to 
distribute) and the "Nutzungsrecht" (the right to use). Both can be 
granted to third parties using a proper license, or using a work contract.

I think what we need here isn't really a change of the ownership, but 
rather a proper license, either a liberal public license (e.g. some CC 
variant), or a personal license for Walter that grants him all rights to 
use, distribute and relicense the logo.

Having said that, I'm pretty sure that he can still transfer the 
"copyright" according to U.S. laws to another person. It's just that he 
could then possibly still sue the person according to German laws. So a 
license would probably be the best bet.

Disclaimer: I'm not a lawyer, so this is just my limited personal 
understanding of the matter.