Thanks for the link. I was unaware of this particular law.
The law you point out seems to be written as a law against society,
with the fine going to the government. Maybe the courts have also
recognized it as a tort, though.
Also, as you mention, the standard (fraudulent intent) is quite high.
Anthony
On 5/15/06, Fastfission <fastfission(a)gmail.com> wrote:
On 5/15/06, Anthony DiPierro
<wikilegal(a)inbox.org> wrote:
Is it illegal to claim you have copyright control
over something you
do not? I'm sure there are plently of laws against claiming you
*wrote* something you didn't, but if you properly attribute the
authors but tack on a false claim of copyright, I don't see how that
can be illegal.
As I understand it (again, I am not in any way a lawyer), the relevant
parts of U.S. copyright law are:
(c) Fraudulent Copyright Notice. - Any person who, with
fraudulent intent, places on any article a notice of copyright or
words of the same purport that such person knows to be false, or
who, with fraudulent intent, publicly distributes or imports for
public distribution any article bearing such notice or words that
such person knows to be false, shall be fined not more than $2,500.
(d) Fraudulent Removal of Copyright Notice. - Any person who,
with fraudulent intent, removes or alters any notice of copyright
appearing on a copy of a copyrighted work shall be fined not more
than $2,500.
(e) False Representation. - Any person who knowingly makes a
false representation of a material fact in the application for
copyright registration provided for by section 409, or in any
written statement filed in connection with the application, shall
be fined not more than $2,500.
FF
_______________________________________________
WikiEN-l mailing list
WikiEN-l(a)Wikipedia.org
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit:
http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l