I am not an attorney, like you Frank, but I believe under the new copyright law failure to defend is just considered defacto permission. Under the old law, IIRC, you lost the copyrigtht when you did not defend it. (When does it become just the copyright law? When all the works under the old law are no longer in copyright, I guess)
Ciao, Graywolf http://pages.prodigy.net/graywolfphoto ---------------------------------------------------------------- ----- Original Message ----- From: frank theriault <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, March 08, 2002 6:22 PM Subject: Re: All pentax manuals on 1 CDROM > Well, I'm not a "real" lawyer - anymore, anyway. And I never did > Intellectual Property Law, so I don't know much about copyright. BUT, > you're right, Len, Copyright means nothing if it's not defended. Same > as any law. Jay-walking is against the law, but in some cities (like > Montreal), it's simply never enforced, so it's meaningless. > > I don't think that failure to "enforce" a copyright equals abandonment, > though. It runs the full 25 years (or whatever it is in various > jurisdictions), and can be enforced at any time, as far as I know. > > As mentioned below, however, why would Pentax want to enforce it? > First, since they aren't profiting from distributing manuals, they've > suffered no damages, so why sue? They could get a restraining order or > injunction against the guy, but to what end? I suspect it's no skin off > their nose if someone sells their manuals, even at a small profit. Hey, > if it means that owners of older Pentaxes can enjoy their cameras that > much more, it's actually to Pentax' benefit that these are being > distributed. You know, if they (consumers) are happy with their old > Pentaxes, they might buy new ones... > > If Pentax wants to spend money, they should spend it on marketing, > development or something useful like that... > > regards, > frank > > Len Paris wrote: > > > Copyright is only meaningful if it's defended. If it's not > > defended, it's abandoned. We must have a real lawyer on board > > here who can settle this. > > > > Len > > ---- > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > > From: "Mark Roberts" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > Sent: Friday, March 08, 2002 3:03 PM > > Subject: Re: All pentax manuals on 1 CDROM > > > > > T Rittenhouse wrote: > > > > > > >There is only a copyright violation if the holder of the > > > >copyright complains. > > > > > > Well, no. A copyright violation has taken place whether or not > > the copyright > > > owner complains, but the guy's not going to get in *trouble* > > unless they > > > do. Of course, if they tried to take him to court, they can > > only really > > > claim actual damages, and since the only thing Pentax is > > losing is downloads > > > from their web site (which are free) and he's only charging > > 8-9 dollars > > > per disc it probably isn't worth the time :-) Pentax could > > probably get > > > him booted of eBay but I don't know why they would. He's > > clearly not doing > > > this for profit; even if he's shipping 1st class mail he's > > only making 6-7 > > > bucks per disc. Given the time involved, he's probably making > > about minimum > > > wage. Seems like no biggie to me. > > > > > > > > > -- > > > Mark Roberts > > - > > This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, > > go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to > > visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org . > > -- > "The optimist thinks this is the best of all possible worlds. The > pessimist fears it is true." -J. Robert > Oppenheimer > - > This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, > go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to > visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org . - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
