copyright and australian law

Under Australian law my understanding is that the Copyright and Intellectual Property rights of any document (which includes source code) remain with the author(s) unless they explicitly grant the rights to someone else.
My questions are:

When distributing a module, under GPL can I still place a copyright notice on the source modules, do I still have copyright rights?

Under a GPL license do I still retain intellectual ownership and the rights that this implies?

Is GPL at odds with AU law?

You probably need to consult with your attorney.

The default that you describe is common in legal systems derived originally from English law, but even without knowing AU law, I'm pretty certain that your attorney will confirm that this doesn't override the terms of the GPL, to which you freely agreed by receiving and using or extending the Zen Cart source code.

However you are allowed, indeed strongly encouraged to add your copyright where you change code, but this must supplement, not replace the copyright of those whose code you are extending.

You still have rights as a copyright holder, but can't impose conditions that conflict with those which you accepted when you received the code.

So as far as part of the copyright question goes then is this OK?

Copyright 2010 me
Portions Copyright 2003-2009 Zen Cart Development Team
Portions Copyright 2003 osCommerce

Most certainly.

dabsoft:

So as far as part of the copyright question goes then is this OK?

Copyright 2010 me
Portions Copyright 2003-2009 Zen Cart Development Team
Portions Copyright 2003 osCommerce

I would think that it would need to read:

Portions Copyright 2010 me
Portions Copyright 2003-2009 Zen Cart Development Team
Portions Copyright 2003 osCommerce

as neither of the named parties can claim complete copyright.

But, as Kim said, you may need to consult your Legal Eagle.

That would make sense, but the standard practice seems to be that the latest author puts just "copyright 2010 me"; any further modifications by others would change that to "portions copyright 2010 me". I don't claim to know why, just that that's the way it is done.

dabsoft, I expect if your module does not contain others peoples intellectual property, then you would normally own copyright. The fact that your module can be integrated with one of more computers or software systems is incidental. However, if you make your module publicly available for free via GPL or other arrangement at any time, then you would probably loose some if not all of your exclusive copyright. i.e. once in the public domain, the effect of copyright changes.

GPL implies you are granting rights for your work to be used, modified etc... though under certain terms and conditions. Some countries have international agreements on copyright. Australia and the US among some other western nations, I believe share such an agreement.

You can apply a copyright notice, but it carries little weight on its own. It all depends on the governing laws and international agreements on copyright, combined with the effect of GPL and what rights GPL grant to the public domain.

Actually you don't need to state copyright on any work, because it is implied again by any created work. However you would need to be able to prove you are the creator and owner of the work. Thus as much as it might serve as an advisory to those viewing the work, ultimately its the overriding agreements on copyright that matter the most along with the burden of proof of ownership.

Not sure about GPL, but Wiki gives you a general rundown on this. A copyright lawyer might be useful, if you need more specific detail and advice and you can also get more general copyright information from the Copyright Council. My gut feeling would be to avoid GPL if you ever intend commercialising your work.