[WikiEN-l] Criminal copyright infringement (was request to Jimbo for out-of-process deletion of image)

[Michael Snow]

Steve Bennett wrote:

>On 4/3/06, Justin Cormack <justin at specialbusservice.com> wrote:
>  
>
>>Do we? I dont actually know of anything else that is a criminal offence
>>in a major country which has general laws protecting free speech,
>>where Jimbo is likely to visit and wouldnt like to be arrested on
>>entry. And where we have an article about the law in question.
>>Maybe we should use the picture to illustrate this?
>>    
>>
>Sorry, you're correct, I meant we have plenty of examples of copyright
>violation. Which is not, as you point out, a criminal offence.
>  
>
Actually, as the occasional outraged victim is more than happy to remind 
us, copyright infringement can be considered criminal under certain 
circumstances, at least in the US. For example, willful infringement for 
commercial advantage, private financial gain, or of works with a total 
retail value of more than $1,000 over any 180-day period. See 17 U.S.C. 
§506. The safe harbors for online service providers and the requirement 
of willfulness make it difficult to apply to the Wikimedia Foundation, 
but I can imagine situations in which it could theoretically apply to 
the person uploading the material.

The section also provides, among other things, for fines for fraudulent 
removal of copyright notices. This might be worth pointing out to those 
users we find modifying images they've clearly copied from other 
websites to remove such notices.

--Michael Snow