View Single Post
Old 03-17-2010, 03:22 PM   #11
calvin-c
Guru
calvin-c ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.calvin-c ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.calvin-c ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.calvin-c ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.calvin-c ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.calvin-c ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.calvin-c ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.calvin-c ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.calvin-c ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.calvin-c ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.calvin-c ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
Posts: 787
Karma: 1575310
Join Date: Jul 2009
Device: Moon+ Pro
Copyright law, in the US at least, starts with the basic premise that the act of making a copy, without the copyright holders permission, is illegal. There are specific exceptions written into the law, but if your situation doesn't fit into one of those exceptions, then the act of making the copy is illegal. (IANAL but I've talked to some about this. This isn't legal advice though, just my interpretation of what they told me.)

As with geographic restrictions, US law considers the site of the 'sale' of a downloaded product to be the location of the person downloading it-so the US downloader of the Canadian PW book would be in violation of US law. (Unless they downloaded it while in Canada, and then bringing it back into the US would be a Customs matter, I think.)

On the practical side, it's handled like the war against drugs-both distributing & using are illegal, but they prefer to charge, or sue, the distributors when they can find them. That doesn't prevent them from charging or suing the users because failure to sue (or at least threaten a lawsuit) when an infringer is found can cause loss of copyright. (Just as failure to charge a drug user, when caught, can cause law enforcement to be themselves sued for corruption. Not all charges are prosecuted, nor are all threats of lawsuits carried out-that can be a practical consideration, but the 'gesture' must at least be made.)
calvin-c is offline   Reply With Quote