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Here we'll explore the nexus of legal rulings, Capitol Hill
policy-making, technical standards development, and technological
innovation that creates -- and will recreate -- the networked world as we
know it. Among the topics we'll touch on: intellectual property
conflicts, technical architecture and innovation, the evolution of
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What Does "Copyfight" Mean?
Copyfight, the Solo Years: April 2002-March 2004
1. On inducement on June 28, 2005 8:43 AM writes...
We can now imagine these dialogues:
INTERNET CONNECTION SALESPERSON TO CUSTOMER:
Salesperson: We offer you the fastest connection by far. Why you can download a 20 gigabyte file in a few minutes.
Customer: What is a 20 gigabyte file?
Saleperson: That is a high definition movie file.
Customer: But I heard that downloading movies files are ilegal.
Saleperson: Not if they are old movies that are in the public domain, like the Charlie Chaplin ones.
Customer: But you said I could download high definition movie files. Did you not?
Saleperson: Look I am not a lawyer and thus cannot explain anything about movie downloading without inducing you to download 20 gigabyte movies that you can download with our connection.
Customer: I understand fully. I will subscribe.
PHOCOPIER SALESPERSON TO CUSTOMER:
Saleperson: You can use this latest machine to automatically copy The Bible in 10 minutes.
Cutomer: Look, I am not interested in copying old book. How about the latest book? Will it copy that too? I need 20 copies of one of those, for the students in my literature class.
Salesperson: Sorry but that is a legal question I cannot answer because that book is surely copyrighted and by saying yes I will be inducing you to copy the book and the courts have said I cannot do that. I sugget that you consult your lawyer first.
Customer: I understand. I will buy the machine.
VHS RECORDER SALEPERSON TO CUSTOMER
Permalink to CommentCustomer: I need to buy 10 VHS recorders and 5,000 blank VHS tapes.
Salesperson: May I ask, why do you need so many recorders and tapes?
Customer: I will be moving to an area where there is no English speaking television. I want to take a huge collection of recorded tapes so I can watch television there. Can I connect the 10 recorders to my cable line?
Saleperson: Sorry, that is a legal question we cannot answer. Have you heard about the Grokster case? Grokster told others what they could do, and they were sued. We are not going to make the same mistake. Which VHS recorder model would you care to buy?