more on Bill Gates' piracy confession - Email found in subject

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Kornfield, Susan" <SKORNFIELD () BODMANLLP COM>
Date: June 23, 2006 12:53:15 PM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: RE: [SPAM] - [IP] Bill Gates' piracy confession - Email  
found in subject

Dear Dr. Farber:

It is unfortunate that many in the media fails to understand basic  
issues of copyright law when they purport to report on copyright issues.

The content to which the WSJ reporter refers (on youtube.com) was not  
"stolen" merely because video footage was posted to the site.  The  
U.S. Supreme Court announced twenty years ago, in Dowling v. United  
States, 473 U.S. 207, 217-218 (1985), that copyrights cannot be  
stolen.  In that same opinion, the Court reminded us of its prior  
ruling to the effect that not all uses of copyrighted materials  
require permission from the copyright owner:


A copyright, like other intellectual property, comprises a series of  
carefully defined and carefully delimited interests to which the law  
affords correspondingly exact protections.  "Section 106 of the  
Copyright Act confers a bundle of exclusive rights to the owner of  
the copyright,” which include the rights “to publish, copy, and  
distribute the author's work.”  Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc. v.  
Nation Enterprises, 471 U.S. 539, 546-547 (1985).  See 17 U.S.C.  
106.  However, “[t]his protection has never accorded the copyright  
owner complete control over all possible uses of his work.”  Sony  
Corp. v. Universal City Studios, Inc., 464 U.S. 417, 432 (1984); id.,  
at 462-463 (dissenting opinion).  For example, 107 of the Copyright  
Act “codifies the traditional privilege of other authors to make  
‘fair use’ of an earlier writer's work.”  Harper & Row, supra, at  
547.  . . .  Thus, the property rights of a copyright holder have a  
character distinct from the possessory interest of the owner of  
simple “goods, wares, [or] merchandise,” for the copyright holder's  
dominion is subjected to precisely defined limits.


Copyright is a nuanced and complex area of law.  The statements in  
the paragraph, above, are far more sophisticated -- and important--  
than they might appear to the casual reader.  It is (apparently) more  
fun for a reporter to believe that he/she has caught Bill Gates with  
stolen goods, than to understand why, in fact, he/she did not.


Susan M. Kornfield, J.D.
Adjunct Professor, Copyright Law
The University of Michigan
BODMAN LLP
Suite 300
110 Miller
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48104
voice: 734-930-2488
fax   : 734-930-2494
email: skornfield () bodmanllp com
web  : http://www.bodmanllp.com


-----Original Message-----
From: David Farber [mailto:dave () farber net]
Sent: Friday, June 23, 2006 12:25 PM
To: ip () v2 listbox com
Subject: [SPAM] - [IP] Bill Gates' piracy confession - Email found in  
subject



Begin forwarded message:

From: Randall <rvh40 () insightbb com>
Date: June 23, 2006 12:15:49 PM EDT
To: Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>, Dewayne Hendricks  
<dewayne () warpspeed com>, JMG <johnmacsgroup () yahoogroups com>
Subject: Bill Gates' piracy confession

http://htdaw.blogsource.com/post.mhtml?post_id=352810

By Robert L. Mitchell on Tue, 06/20/2006 - 12:53pm

If you read way down to the bottom of a Wall Street Journal interview  
with Bill Gates that ran yesterday, you'll discover that the  
Microsoft executive admitted to watching pirated movies on the  
Internet. The confession came as he was talking about content he had  
viewed on YouTube. Here's part of the exchange:

         WSJ: You watch physics lectures and Harlem Globetrotters [on
         YouTube]?

         Gates: This social-networking thing takes you to crazy places.

         WSJ: But those were stolen, correct?

         Gates: Stolen's a strong word. It's copyrighted content  
that the
         owner wasn't paid for. So yes.


The Internet's biggest social failure has been that it has served as  
enabling technology for rampant cheating and theft - and the  
rationalization of it. The Internet makes stealing so easy that most  
people don't even think about it.

Bill Gates' comments would appear to be a case in point. You can hear  
the wheels turning as Gates thinks through the reality of his actions  
before finally admitting that he has indeed downloaded and consumed  
copyrighted content.

If you have a WSJ subscription you can view the story, Bill Gates  
on ...the Competition here.

http://www.computerworld.com/blogs/node/2803



--
My Original Writing blog - http://itgotworse.blogsource.com


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