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Originally Posted by nairbv
More (hypothetical) legal questions... if anyone knows...
I mean, ... If I own a book, I can re-sell it.
If I've paid for the IP... Well, let's say I do resell it. Let's say, I keep my own copy too. Now, let's say (for the sake of argument) that I realize that I've duplicated the value of the IP, and that I owe money to the base owner of that IP. Lets also say that, since I sold the IP, I want to use that money to pay what I owe.
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The thing is, with copyright law, it's tricky. It's *not* like stealing, in that you haven't deprived anyone of property, so you don't just owe the cost of the property.
Instead, you have infringed on the copyright holder's rights - like if you had infringed on their civil rights, or right to vote, or right to free speech.
You've violated their right to exclusively decide how their works are duplicated and distributed.
So how do you put a value on those rights? Well, it's complicated, and that's why a court has to decide. The guidelines are, as Nate posted, something between $750 - 30k per infringement, depending. That's a wide range, and the penalty is decided partly based on the financial harm suffered by the copyright holder, but not solely. That's why it's possible to get damages far in excess of actual losses.
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Originally Posted by nairbv
How much would it be? how would I go about paying it? If I can be sued for it, do I just have to wait until I'm sued?
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Yes, in fact, regardless of moral guilt ;-) you're not legally guilty of infringement until a court has found you so, and that can't happen until you're sued. If you're sued, it can be a lot of money (E.g. the Jammie Thomas suit), far in excess of any sort of reasonable losses and the defendant's ability to pay.
Quote:
Originally Posted by nairbv
Is there any feasible legal way for me or anyone else to do this? Would it be legally possible to open a website selling pirated copies of every ebook on the market, and then just mailing a check to the relevant publisher and/or author every time someone downloads a book? What would be the appropriate amount of money to send, and how would I find out? Note that I don't want to buy another lit file from ms every time I sell another copy of IP, ... because then I'd be paying extra for MS's service. I'd *only* want to pay for the IP.
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No, because again, you're not legally liable for the content, you're liable for violating the author's rights. Even if you printed up a lovely hardcover copy, sold it in Borders, and sent the entire proceeds direct to the author, you'd be violating copyright.
This is the legal side of things, not the moral side of things, and I'm not a lawyer (although I am a moralist
).