Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
Don't you remember when Paramount had a "purge" of Star Trek fan sites some years ago. Could they have succeeded in doing that if the sites were not breaking the law?
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The ISPs and web hosts are often not interested in the vagaries of copyright law--they care about profit without hassles.
Paramount didn't need a viable case to shut them down, just the threat of the *possibility* of filing one--and the hosts shut down the fansites, because even if the fansites were 100% legal, proving that in court wasn't worth it to the host company. They didn't want the trouble, and the fansites weren't bringing in enough income to go out on a limb to try to keep their business.
However, there are still plenty of Star Trek fansites, and huge swarms of Star Trek fanfiction, and Paramount has failed to take any of them to court. Isn't that just as much evidence that Paramount doesn't think those sites are infringing? (Of course not. Neither removal nor tolerance of websites is any indication of legal status regarding copyright; both are cases of someone deciding to take the practical path of least resistance.)