At 4:56 AM -0500 11/1/06, dhbailey wrote:
You need to do something about it or your copyright lawsuit options
will be reduced, from what I understand. That's one of the reasons
that major corporations pursue copyright violations with such
vengeance.
If you do finally take some infringer to court and that infringer
can point to numerous other violations which have been ongoing and
that you've done nothing about, I believe that the compensations you
can try to get are reduced.
David (and Hiro), with all respect, I believe this is exactly wrong.
In fact, I think that you are thinking about trade mark infringement
rather than copyright infringement, because I have read the same
thing in regard to trade marks, but trade marks are not copyrights
and vice versa.
Certainly a defendant could cite instances in court as you say, but
since the offense is in direct violation of the copyright law I doubt
that the court would accept those instances as relevant. What does
reduce your potential compensation, as I understand it, is whether or
not you have registered your copyright with the Copyright Office.
Failure to do so does not void your copyright, but does bar you from
certain damages (statutory???).
We have a current (and totally ridiculous) trade mark fight under
weigh here in Roanoke. There is a Limousine Service that has done
business for many years as "Cartier Limousines" (I may have the name
or the jeweler wrong, since it came out in the paper a month or more
ago.) It seems that the NYC jeweler finally discovered that their
trademarked name was being used by a small businessman (through a
Google search, I would imagine), and their lawyer sent a
cease-and-desist order. Who knows how it will turn out? ("The
Limousine Service formerly known as Cartier"??)
John
--
John & Susie Howell
Virginia Tech Department of Music
Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A 24061-0240
Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034
(mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED])
http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html
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