On 5/15/06, Anthony DiPierro wikilegal@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.
From http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/casecode/uscodes/17/chapters/5/sections/sectio...
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