[WikiEN-l] GFDL lawsuits - who can sue?

[Ray Saintonge]

Fastfission wrote:

>On 5/15/06, Anthony DiPierro <wikilegal at 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.
>
"Fraudulent intent" is a key element to these provisions.  That brings 
it all into criminal law where the standards of proof are much higher.  
A lot of people who put up these notices have the good faith belief that 
they are correct in doing so, and as I stated before they may still have 
copyright on the layout of the page, but nothing else.

Ec