Re: Copyrights

At 03:25 PM 1/27/2000 -0500, Thomas Barclay wrote:
[snip]
>** Err, Mark, if I did this myself its okay..... 

Not in the States it isn't.

>.... what if I did it with a Robot? - that is it was personal use only,
but
>I had my 'Bot do the construction? .....
>.... and what if my 'Bor happens to be biological and have the name
>Mark....?
>
>That's pretty thorny. I'm having a machine (the computer) do this for
me (so
>it isn't hand drawn). So if I could use tele-operation to do it with
your
>printer (ie use some remote
>control to make your printer work) it would probably be legal. So if
instead
>of having a
>dumb bot, I have you do it for me, why is it any different? I'm
essentially
>"making" these things for personal use. You're not getting paid for it.
You
>profit in no way (in this example) from it. So it is "personal use"?
Isn't
>it? 

US Copyright laws relief *used* to be based mainly on monies made, but
statutory relief was added over a decade ago to "close" that loophole.

>You guys live in the USA so who knows... but other than in the land of
>the ambulance-chasing lawyer, this seems reasonable to me....
>
>... which has little to do with legality I realize. 

Yes, the copyright legality here in the States is  . . . interesting.

US Copyright laws don't care what the intended usage is, with the one
exception of "Fair Use" - which is defined as Parody or News/Commentary.
US Copyright laws don't care what the method of reproduction used was. 
The
test for copyright violation here in the States is really fairly simple.

1) Is it a recognizable copy?
2) Did you get explicit legal permission?

If you answer 1)yes 2)no, you are in violation of Title 17.  Personal
use,
non-commercial use, hand reproduced, computer generated - it's all the
same.  If you answer 1)yes 2)no, you are libel to potential legal
actions
by the copyright holder.  Potential damages can either be based on
monies
made from the infringement, *or* satutory penalties up to $100,000 can
be
assessed - even if nary a penny exchanged hands.

Interested parties can jump on the Library of Congress' home page at the
following URL:

	http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright/

Title 17 itself is at http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright/title17/ for your
viewing pleasure.  Section 501 is what we have been mostly discussing
here
today.

============================================================
Mark "Hauptmann" Shurtleff
 email: hauptman@sfcmd.com
 StarFighter Command Homepage: http://www.sfcmd.com/
============================================================