Re: Ok, they "stole" my FAQ. Now what?

Kent Landfield (Kent_Landfield@sterling.com)
Wed, 6 Apr 94 15:29:13 CDT

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In reply to: John Frost: "Re: Ok, they "stole" my FAQ. Now what?"

>
> > And, given that you were distributing this document freely on the
> > Internet, they can probably make a good case that they were free to
> > copy it onto a CD. A CD is, after all, just a very large packet with
> > a very long round-trip time.
> >
> It is not and that analogy wouldn't hold up in court, at least I hope
> not. We are talking about people who have expressly written copyright
> notices that forbid distribution other then on USENET and FTP. I think a
> CD violates that...

Not acording to the legal counsel that we hired to evaluate the NetNews/CD
service. Granted nothing is "legal" until proven so in a court of law but
their position was that CD was no different from wire, tape or hardisk except
in the expiration length. Unaltered, the magnetic transport media does matter.
Please, I'll repeat myself, UUNET put USENET news on 8mm tape, others do/did
as well. Do you backup your news spool directory ? We put USENET on CD-ROM,
a full feed. The media does not matter the content matters. Russ is right,
the CD could be viewed as a very slow, very limited newsfeed.

> > Can I sue? Should I?
> >
> > Wouldn't do much good. You can only recover actual damages. You'd
> > have to show that you were making money from the FAQ in some other
> > way, and that distribution of the FAQ on their CD-ROM deprived you of
> > money.

Bingo!

> > Oh, and be careful about language like "stole". Theft is a criminal
> > offense. Copyright violation is a civil offense.

And let's not forget about libel...

-Kent+

-- 
Kent Landfield                        INTERNET: kent_landfield@sterling.com
Sterling Software                     UUCP:     uunet!kent || sparky!kent
Phone: (402) 291-8300                 FAX:     (402) 291-4362
Please send comp.sources.misc-related mail to kent@uunet.uu.net.

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In reply to: John Frost: "Re: Ok, they "stole" my FAQ. Now what?"

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