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Originally Posted by avantman42
Do you have links to any such cases? I'd be interested to know the details.
I can see how having some form of protection would serve to give notice that it was a copyrighted work, but I would have thought a simple copyright notice would serve that purpose just as well.
Am I wrong? Would having DRM on the work provide more legal weight than a copyright notice? I'd have thought not, since anything can have DRM applied, whether it is protected by copyright or not.
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There have been a few popular books, the titles of course escape me now, which describe companies losing trademarks because they did not defend them. It wasn't just a matter of them not putting a little TM or circle-R symbol when THEY mentioned the brand, they did, it was a matter of them allowing the brand to be used casually and publicly by others. The brands became generic terms, and when another company did try to use the brand name commercially, and the original IP owners sued, they lost, partially because in not actively defending the brand, they effectly gave it up. Cellophane comes to mind, and I know Kleenex and Xerox are constantly fighting this. I'd see putting DRM on a work as a similar indication. One more thing to hold up in court and say "Look, I was clearly not intending this to be public domain...I didn't merely put a circle C on it and forget about it, I took clear action to protect it."