Quote:
Originally Posted by rhadin
No they are not stupid. If they permit this copyright violation without expressly agreeing to it, it will be thrown in their face should they try to enforce another violation. There are cases that say once you waive your rights consider them unenforceable everywhere.
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That's how trademark works, but not copyright. The copyright owner can grant or forbid any number of uses without affecting the right to do the same in the future. Copyright is not a "use it or lose it" right. Copyright is "the right to decide;" trademark is "the right to associate your label with your products."
If your label gets associated with other products and you don't stop it, you've lost that right. If, however, you *decide* to allow some uses of your material (possibly because it'd cost more to litigate than you're losing from the use thereof), you have exercised your copyright; you can't lose it through inaction.
This is an
important point in copyright discussions, because there are some authors & publishers who mistakenly think that they do have to enforce their rights on small, not-economically-problematic violations. (Or large, costing-them-millions violations, but there's usually not much of a debate about whether to go after those.)
(IANAL)