[IP] more on Bill Gates' piracy confession - Email found in subject
Begin forwarded message:
From: "Kornfield, Susan" <SKORNFIELD@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: June 23, 2006 12:53:15 PM EDT
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: [SPAM] - [IP] Bill Gates' piracy confession - Email
found in subject
Dear Dr. Farber:
It is unfortunate that many in the media fails to understand basic
issues of copyright law when they purport to report on copyright issues.
The content to which the WSJ reporter refers (on youtube.com) was not
"stolen" merely because video footage was posted to the site. The
U.S. Supreme Court announced twenty years ago, in Dowling v. United
States, 473 U.S. 207, 217-218 (1985), that copyrights cannot be
stolen. In that same opinion, the Court reminded us of its prior
ruling to the effect that not all uses of copyrighted materials
require permission from the copyright owner:
A copyright, like other intellectual property, comprises a series of
carefully defined and carefully delimited interests to which the law
affords correspondingly exact protections. "Section 106 of the
Copyright Act confers a bundle of exclusive rights to the owner of
the copyright,” which include the rights “to publish, copy, and
distribute the author's work.” Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc. v.
Nation Enterprises, 471 U.S. 539, 546-547 (1985). See 17 U.S.C.
106. However, “[t]his protection has never accorded the copyright
owner complete control over all possible uses of his work.” Sony
Corp. v. Universal City Studios, Inc., 464 U.S. 417, 432 (1984); id.,
at 462-463 (dissenting opinion). For example, 107 of the Copyright
Act “codifies the traditional privilege of other authors to make
‘fair use’ of an earlier writer's work.” Harper & Row, supra, at
547. . . . Thus, the property rights of a copyright holder have a
character distinct from the possessory interest of the owner of
simple “goods, wares, [or] merchandise,” for the copyright holder's
dominion is subjected to precisely defined limits.
Copyright is a nuanced and complex area of law. The statements in
the paragraph, above, are far more sophisticated -- and important--
than they might appear to the casual reader. It is (apparently) more
fun for a reporter to believe that he/she has caught Bill Gates with
stolen goods, than to understand why, in fact, he/she did not.
Susan M. Kornfield, J.D.
Adjunct Professor, Copyright Law
The University of Michigan
BODMAN LLP
Suite 300
110 Miller
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48104
voice: 734-930-2488
fax : 734-930-2494
email: skornfield@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
web : http://www.bodmanllp.com
-----Original Message-----
From: David Farber [mailto:dave@xxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Friday, June 23, 2006 12:25 PM
To: ip@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [SPAM] - [IP] Bill Gates' piracy confession - Email found in
subject
Begin forwarded message:
From: Randall <rvh40@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: June 23, 2006 12:15:49 PM EDT
To: Dave Farber <farber@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Dewayne Hendricks
<dewayne@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, JMG <johnmacsgroup@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Bill Gates' piracy confession
http://htdaw.blogsource.com/post.mhtml?post_id=352810
By Robert L. Mitchell on Tue, 06/20/2006 - 12:53pm
If you read way down to the bottom of a Wall Street Journal interview
with Bill Gates that ran yesterday, you'll discover that the
Microsoft executive admitted to watching pirated movies on the
Internet. The confession came as he was talking about content he had
viewed on YouTube. Here's part of the exchange:
WSJ: You watch physics lectures and Harlem Globetrotters [on
YouTube]?
Gates: This social-networking thing takes you to crazy places.
WSJ: But those were stolen, correct?
Gates: Stolen's a strong word. It's copyrighted content
that the
owner wasn't paid for. So yes.
The Internet's biggest social failure has been that it has served as
enabling technology for rampant cheating and theft - and the
rationalization of it. The Internet makes stealing so easy that most
people don't even think about it.
Bill Gates' comments would appear to be a case in point. You can hear
the wheels turning as Gates thinks through the reality of his actions
before finally admitting that he has indeed downloaded and consumed
copyrighted content.
If you have a WSJ subscription you can view the story, Bill Gates
on ...the Competition here.
http://www.computerworld.com/blogs/node/2803
--
My Original Writing blog - http://itgotworse.blogsource.com
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