can you take something unknowingly? (was Re: IP, forwarded

[David Honig]

>On Wed, Jan 10, 2001 at 12:22:10PM -0600, Jim Choate wrote:
>> You are if you take it knowingly (can you take something unknowingly?) and
>> especially if with the intent to defraud the copyright holder of their
>> rights.

Interestingly, copyright and patent differ on 'unknowingly taking'.
If (as was recently mentioned) someone dupes some content and gives
you a copy, you are not responsible -the copier was violating copyright,
not you.  The copier could 'unknowingly take' by simply mistaking the
content for public domain.

But patents are different.  If sell you a chip, and you build a board with
it, and Joe build a system with your board, and that chip turns out to be
infringing a patent, my chip, your board, Joe's system, everything that
uses the infringing work is legal toast.  (And could be stopped at the
border if imported, which happened to an American FPGA vendor who uses
TSMC.) This is a major practical problem e.g., in the selling of 'cores'.

So anyway, its definately possible to 'unknowingly take' IP.