Sean Barrett wrote:
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geni stated for the record:
On 11/19/06, Fastfission fastfission@gmail.com wrote:
You are not "free to try and claim" so much as "it is very rare that people ever get taken to court for false copyright claims over PD material, even though it is illegal."
How is it illegal?
Fraud.
506(c) of the U.S. Copyright Law:
(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.
This is quite low for a maximum fine, and the burden of proving fraudulent intent and knowledge that the claim is false may be enough to make this section unusable.
(re-sent) Ec