[Foundation-l] Fair Use (again)

[Jeffrey V. Merkey]

Ray Saintonge wrote:

>Jeff V. Merkey wrote:
>
>  
>
>>We should act in good faith always. Good faith means if someone creates 
>>a "cloud of doubt" and they are
>>an undisputed owner of the materials in question, a good faith action 
>>would be to remove it.
>>
>>    
>>
>The biggest fly in that ointment is with establishing that they are the 
>undisputed owner.  There are as many misconceptions about that as there 
>are about fair use.  When that has been established it's good corporate 
>citizenship to remove the material when they ask nicely even if we could 
>win a court fight over fair use.
>
>Ec
>  
>
If they cannot establish they own the rights to the materials to the 
Foundation, then it is doubtful they will be able to
convince a judge of this. An attorney sending a letter or posting a 
notice asserting such claims are true is about the
only bonafide proof there is, short of a court ruling. Attorneys are 
bound by rules of professional conduct. Falsely asserting copyright
ownership on behalf of a client could get them brought up on allegations 
with their state bar. If they are disbarred, they
cannot practice law. Lawyers are not allowed to bill their time to 
answer bar complaints, and it could take 6-12 hours or more in
what would have been valuable time they could bill for. If they work for 
a law firm, bar complaints can get them in a lot of
trouble. As such, any attorney claiming copyright on behalf of a client 
is most probably telling the truth and has done their
homework on the claims.

That's how you tell. When an attorney sends a DMCA notice to the 
foundation. At which point, the content should come down.

Jeff

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