>As I recall, in the U.S. at least if you do not aggressively protect >your IP rights upon discovery of theft -- be it malicious theft or >incidental and of innocent intent -- you forfeit them. There is no >legal middle ground.
Actually Matt, that applies more to trademarks than copyright. It's fairly common a lot of times to not defend copyright infringement, when there's no monetary gain to be had, but it doesn't mean you forfeit your rights to do so in the future. Trademarks however, must be protected or they can be considered in public use. Legally, you don't even need to register to have copyright protection, although it can make a big difference in what damages you can get, whereas getting a trademark is a much more involved and lengthy process (not to mention more expensive). But that of course doesn't mean it wasn't totally appropriate for Brian to object and take action. It's really sad that anyone would see anything wrong in his objecting to his work, which he makes income off of, being used without his permission or knowledge, and in a way that could certainly effect his business. The apology was given and appears quite heartfelt. I've certainly had issues with my work being used illegally in the past and would have been thrilled to receive a similar apology. It's nice to see someone stand up and take responsibility for making a mistake. -------------------- Mary Jo Sminkey http://www.cfwebstore.com CFWebstore, ColdFusion E-commerce ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Upgrade to Adobe ColdFusion MX7 Experience Flex 2 & MX7 integration & create powerful cross-platform RIAs http:http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;56760587;14748456;a?http://www.adobe.com/products/coldfusion/flex2/?sdid=LVNU Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:266781 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
