Quote:
Originally Posted by Kali Yuga
Erk?  I went with this example specifically to avoid conflating "intellectual property violations" with "stolen property." Counterfeit and piracy are completely different from theft and/or reselling stolen goods. |
Yes, counterfeiting and piracy are completely different from theft and stolen goods. But, counterfeiting is also completely different from copyright infringement.
Amazon being an unauthorized distributor of copyrighted material has nothing to do with counterfeiting. With copyright infringement, the actual item/product is legal. The only "violation" is that the seller did not have authorization from the copyright holder. This is a dispute between the distributor and the holder over infringement of the holder's rights, it has nothing to do with whether the item being sold is itself legal or not.
If Amazon is committing copyright infringement with DVDs (not counterfeiting), the physical DVDs are legal, it's just the authorization agreement between the distributor and the copyright holder that constitutes infringement. If Amazon is selling eBooks, the electronic files that they are selling are legally owned by Amazon and they can legally transfer ownership of those files via a sales transaction. What Amazon does not have is copyright authorization to distribute, but that does not make the files themselves illegal or void the transaction. That just means that the copyright holder and Amazon have a dispute between them over the authorization to distribute the material. Amazon has infringed on the copyright holder's right of distribution, but that does not make the product itself illegal.