Quote:
Originally Posted by cjcherryh
... if I do not legally protest such a non-licensed use I weaken my case to pursue any random pirate who decides it's ok to scan them.
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While I'm not a lawyer, I am a copyright law fanatic; it's my understanding that this is emphatically not the case.
Trademarks are weakened by allowing unauthorized use; copyright is not.
Trademarks are weakened by copies because what trademark protects (theoretically) is "brand reliability"... you know if you buy a Kodak, it's held to a certain standard of production, a certain range of products. If Kodak allows random street vendors to sell "homemade Kodak pinhole cameras," the public loses its sense of Kodak as selling whatever quality-level Kodak insists on.
However, copyright doesn't work that way. Multiple copies, authorized or not, do not "dilute" the original, because copyright isn't based on the public's right to an "official" version; it's based on the copyright-holder's right to control--or not control--copies, in order to encourage creativity and public distribution of works.
For a lot of big-name copyright suits, it's about the same; Disney doesn't spend a lot of time talking about the difference between copyrighted Mickey and trademarked Mickey. But for most authors, there's a big difference, and it is:
You can allow any number of unauthorized copies that don't bother you (often, by not causing commercial damage... the college student who quotes one of your books extensively to discuss themes in sci-fi isn't costing you any money, regardless of the word count involved), and still have your full set of rights to go after copies that you consider problematic.