Re: PGP support

[Florian Weimer <fw@deneb.enyo.de>]

Kai.Grossjohann@CS.Uni-Dortmund.DE (Kai Großjohann) writes:

> What's a usufruct?

It's called 'Nießbrauch' in German (but I'm sure this doesn't help
much ;-).

A usufruct is the right to use a thing for gaining profit of some
kind, but without diminishing the value of the thing (for example,
growing crops on a field in a responsible manner).

I was told that 'usufruct of a copyright' is the correct term, but
some people prefer 'exploitation rights', I think.

German copyright law is a complex field.  Copyright does not only
include exploitation rights, but also moral rights of the author.  In
particular, copyright can only be transferred among heirs, and not
during lifetime of the author.  For computer programs, there are
additional twists.  For example, you can run COTS software legally
without accepting the enclosed EULA in Germany, but you must accept
most parts of the GPL before distributing GPLed code.

In this area, even professionals make mistakes: Recently, the German
branch of IPFI suggested to assign back the exploitation rights for
online transmission to the original authors (invalidating all previous
contracts), and to legalize Napster in its first incarnation (with
songs stored on a central server).  All this was done by accident, I
suppose.