Lesley, et al.:
Here's the answer, provided by Maria Pallante, legal counsel, Guggenheim
Museum:
"Lesley is right and not at all alone in her view. Small claims have been
around since the beginning of copyright law. They are not always cost
effective to bring, which I think is the photographers' point. They feel
they need to make enforcement easier, by making the system less expensive
and less cumbersome for claims that today may not be worth filing. But that
is where authors guilds, trade associations and unions can step up and
provide support or dispute resolution assistance. I was a staff attorney at
both the Authors Guild and the National Writers Union and I too assisted
with many, many small claims of members, ensuring that they never reached
the litigation level, actually. So it does remain to be seen whether a new
system is needed, whether it will be used and, as I said before, whether it
is constitutional - there are some questions about whether one can force a
party out of a federal court when the issue is federal law, including
federal defenses like fair use.
All this should come out now that they have held this proceeding - which was
initially tied to the orphan works issue and is thank goodness no longer
so - and we shall see!"
Maria will be testifying before the Senate on the Orphan Works legislation
tomorrow www.cspan.org We should all watch and cheer her on!
Amalyah Keshet
Chair, MCN IP SIG
----- Original Message -----
From: "Lesley Ellen Harris" <[email protected]>
To: "Multiple recipients of mcn-l" <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, April 04, 2006 5:20 PM
Subject: Re: IP SIG: Small Claims Court for Copyright?
Why is special legislation needed for this? When I was practising law in
Toronto many years ago, I helped a photographer client pursue a case in
small claims court.
Lesley
Lesley Ellen Harris
[email protected]
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