Moral Rights and Space Marines

[major_clanger]

andrewducker has commented on an issue that has arisen over the apparent inability of Games Workshop to grant permission to a group of German fans to show a film based on its Warhammer 40K game.

The issue here seems to be the fundamental schism in the whole philosophy of copyright between the Anglo-American and European traditions. In the UK and USA (and many other common-law countries) copyright is seen as an economic commodity that can be traded between owners; the original author can assign it and in some circumstances (e.g. work written for hire) may never even hold it. In Europe, by contrast, there is a very strong tradition that copyright is firmly attached to the original author (the French and German terms literally translate as 'author right'); the author may license its use, but cannot completely sever it.

This is particularly true for what are termed Moral Rights. The moral rights are the rights of the author to object to 'derogatory treatment' of work - distortion, misrepresentation, or other presentation that undermines the author's concept of its artistic value. For instance, if you draw a comic book and the publisher changes the speech bubbles and redraws half the panels, you can object on the basis that your moral rights have been infringed, even if the publisher has bought the copyright.

Moral rights have historically been very strong in Europe, to the point that in some countries they are inalienable; the author cannot sign them away. The aim of this is to protect authors from exploitation (in contrast with the Anglo-American approach of protecting, if anyone, the exploiter) but it does mean that in this case GW cannot just buy the whole package of rights off the German fans. I would still have thought it possible to negotiate some sort of suitable arrangement, but I imagine that it would take specialist German IP advice, which the fans can't afford and GW isn't inclined to pay for.

Comments

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

There may be other factors involved, such as whether GW want the film associated with their products - it could be that they are mildly interested, but not prepared to pay for the legalities, or that they don't like it at all and are using this as an excuse to avoid other issues.

[antonia-tiger.livejournal.com]

I've just realised how long it is since WH40K first appeared--just in time for Christmas 1987.

And what sticks in my mind from the original rulebook was the amount of art that was borrowing from Triumph of the Will--Nuremburg Rally shots with Space Marines.

It does make me wonder what this movie might be like.

[pjc50.livejournal.com]

It does sound like US copyright lawyers running in fear at the moral rights issues. I think it's probably not an unsolveable issue but they don't want to spend the effort working out what it all means.

I think their first mistake was to make a film without getting clearance. In the modern world of copyright that's a very risky proposition. The best way to get the film seen would probably be to release it to pirates and hope that WH don't sue.

This sort of problem happens a lot in the software industry, especially among open source software.

[maviscruet.livejournal.com]

Its' really odd. I do suspect there just using it as an excuse. Surely warhammer could just buy it off them - or allow the artists to pay them a nominal fee.

After all germans do work creativly for other people all the time.....

[major-clanger.livejournal.com]

Yes, but they usually do so with agreement in advance.

German law on moral rights really is quite odd by US/UK standards - you can't sell or assign them. Or, in practical terms, if you do then it's unenforceable, so someone buying your rights will be aware that you nonetheless retain the right to exercise some control over how it is presented.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

One of the interesting quirks of French copyright law is that copyright protection is extended by a set number of years if the writer/artist served or died in one of the world wars. I find this rather charming: it reflects both the interruption to the career and the impact on any dependents or heirs. It does, however, rather tend to favour men. (I discovered this when researching pictures for my d'Artagnan book.)