Todd Allen wrote:
Matthew Brown wrote:
On 7/25/07, Todd Allen toddmallen@gmail.com wrote:
Still, the RIAA loves high-profile lawsuits, and it's not wise to taunt a dangerous lunatic.
They're not quite that crazy. Suing us over CD covers would be crazier than I believe the RIAA is capable of, and they would lose. They would lose because this is one of the safest forms of fair use that we make, because it's obvious that we do not hurt their commercial interests by doing this, and because there's a lot of precedent on our side. Wikipedia would be supported by many others if such a lawsuit were to be brought, because it would be a bad decision for a lot of people who have a lot more money to lose than we do.
I imagine there's also a good deal of precedent against winning lawsuits against dead people, but they tried that one anyway.
Realistically, in the event they did decide to try it, could we afford to fight it, even if it were a sure win?
The problem with that kind of argument is that it cuts off the possibility of winning, even winning easily. The value of take-down orders is that it lets you know that somebody cares about the way we use the album cover. When such an order is received there is an opportunity to remove the image without further costs. We obviously can decide then to tale the matter further, but that decision does not need to be taken any earlier.
Ec