The big example usually given is France. Under French law there are several "moral rights" like anthologizing. Here's the best way I can express this: when _why

The big example usually given is France. Under French law there are several "moral rights" like anthologizing. Here's the best way I can express this: when _why left the Ruby community and deleted his online presence, several people created collections of all of the open-source software which _why had written, without _why's permission. That sort of collection is illegal under French law; an English translation of the relevant statute says, "The author alone shall have the right to make a collection of his articles and speeches and to publish them or to authorize their publication in such form." That right is not transferable, you can't get rid of it, etc. There is a related nasty moral right in France about withdrawing your copyrighted works -- "Notwithstanding assignment of his right of exploitation, the author shall enjoy a right to reconsider or of withdrawal, even after publication of his work, with respect to the assignee." If I am reading the other terms on this page right, that might not apply to software in particular, but it could probably apply to Creative Commons licensed writing, e.g. Wikipedia. Both of those quotes are from http://195.83.177.9/code/liste.phtml?lang=uk&c=36&r=2497 http://195.83.177.9/code/liste.phtml?lang=uk&c=36&r=... . Even worse, French law does not permit a "mostly complete" copyright contract, as I understand the legal history -- so the French courts have actually said things like, "this contract tries to give away your moral rights, that's legally impossible, so the whole license is legal nonsense, so there never was a license, so it is totally proprietary."