“Once again, you conflate making a copy with moving a physical object. No. The file is not akin to a book or a vinyl record, it is a message. When you “move” a file, then you are modifying one media to contain the same information. It is not like taking a page out of a binder and putting it into a new one, it is photocopying that page and putting the new copy into the binder. The original is still there. It can still be used.”
To be fair it’s a complex discussion. But I still don’t think I’m using the anaology you’re proposing. ‘Practically’ it’s a copy, but it doesn’t have to be. If I move a file from one storage medium to another and delete the original, I have, for all intensive purposes, moved it and not copied it.
“Never mind that your example is absurd, as any commission for work does include all rights to make copies. Or is it that absurd?”
I’ll concede that it was a crap example, but no, it’s not necessarily absurd. If I have a clause in our contract that says “No copyright is transfered on handover, you cannot make copies of this”, then you cannot make copies of it. Not all commissioned work involves the transfer of copyright, code being a very common example (oftentimes the copyright of the markup is retained, for a few reasons).
