IP, forwarded posts, and copyright infringement

[Bill Stewart]

At 11:36 AM 1/10/01 -0600, Jim Choate replied to Declan's >> > post:
>> > (Hint: U.S. copyright law does not make mere possession or archiving
>> > an offense. Try distribution, performance, etc.)
>>
>>Hint: WRONG.
>>
>>Simply possessing a paperback book that has had its cover removed as a
>>sign of 'destroyed' status is in fact a crime. Used book stores that have
>>them in stock can be charged accordingly.

At 12:54 PM 1/10/01 -0500, Declan McCullagh wrote:
>Anyway, Jim is conflating physical control over an instantiation of IP with 
>the rights conferred by IP law. If someone copies Microsoft Word (or a Tom 
>Clancy novel) onto a CDROM and gives it to me, I am not liable.

The paperback book example has nothing to do with intellectual property -
it's about real property, the dead-tree portion of the book that's left
when the bookstore mails the front cover back to the distributor 
for credit and claims the rest of the book has been destroyed.
Somebody, I think Jim, incorrectly said this was an issue about royalties,
which would be IP-related, but it's not - royalties are what the 
publisher pays the author when the book gets sold, while this is about
what the bookstore does or doesn't pay the wholesaler when the book
does or doesn't get sold.  (I'm not sure which legal rules cover it -
fraud, tort, conversion, maybe theft by the store, so possibly
possession of stolen property by the purchaser or other recipient.)

However, that doesn't mean Declan's correct :-)
Before the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, he probably would have been,
but the DMCA is a vague ill-defined mess of evil intentions that
are increasingly being expanded (or at least people are attempting to
expand them; how much holds up in court remains to be seen.)
The DeCSS cases are a relatively direct use.  The Scientology claims
against E-Bay for using electronic tools (their auction system) to
violate their intellectual property constraints (by helping
ex-Scientologists sell used E-Meters to people who haven't paid
the Church of Scientology for their trade secret religious materials)
is a way blatant stretch, but seem to have been enough to intimidate E-Bay.
				Thanks! 
					Bill
Bill Stewart, bill.stewart at pobox.com
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