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Re: NEWS: Paramount is Shutting Down Trek Websites!!!
In article <codex-2909961007330001@ip162.tus.primenet.com>,
codex@primenet.com (codex) wrote:
> Again, I believe there is ample precedent in law to reproduce and
> redistribute copyrighted information AS LONG AS the copier/distrubter does
> not profit from the information and/or the holder of the copyright does
> not suffer a demonstrable loss of income from such redistribution-- such
> as printing the entire text of an author's book on the Internet, for
> example, or the script of an as-yet unreleased motion picture.
This just isn't so. A copyright can't be violated because the violator's
heart is pure. There is such a thing as "fair use," however, and that
should certainly include a vidcap or two within a discussion of Star
Trek. Your argument about profit only goes to mitigating the money
damages Paramount could be awarded, not to the blameworthiness of the
defendant.
Paramount views its FIRST CONTACT material as proprietary, and is acting
to protect it. I think Par seems to be a bit too exuberant in doing so,
but it's their sandbox.
> It is this "softness" in the law that allows one to videotape a movie and
> show it to friends.
Actually, that's not allowed -- but it's so beyond enforceability that no
one bothers. You can videotape for your own use, ever since the copyright
laws were tweaked in the 1980s, but that use doesn't include public
exhibition -- for profit or otherwise.
> I would be surprised to find the Paramount Legal Eagles hassling smallfry
> fan sites when there are larger fish to fry: those clearly profiting from
> or by trademarked materials.
I wouldn't be surprised at all. You first go after the parties most
likely to fold, for the purpose of scaring off others. All that takes is
a threat by letter. Those non-licensees profiting from Star Trek are
breaking the copyright laws at a whole 'nother, higher level, and some of
them will require the full Engulf & Devour treatment.
--
Stop by and set a spell at http://www.fred.net/thirteen/
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