Vulnerability Development mailing list archives

Re: [7.8.2002 44916] Notice of Copyright Infringement


From: Valdis.Kletnieks () vt edu
Date: Thu, 11 Jul 2002 15:05:44 -0400

On Thu, 11 Jul 2002 05:57:00 EDT, Vicne said:

But I am curious now, would they be able to build a case without
validating that the content is actually theirs, not just the name?

In a US civil court, it wouldn't take much - the standard is "preponderance
of evidence".  If they can show that you were serving up a video, and it
was the right size, and the name of the file was the name of their movie,
and it was found on a p2p network where the *previous* 118 files of the
same name, type, and size were pirated movies, you'd better be ready to
show proof it *wasnt* a pirated copy of their movie.

The Aimster crew had an interesting twist on this - they used a trivial
encryption, but phrased their EULA such that the RIAA had to either break
the EULA or violate the DMCA to get enough info to show infringement (at
which point the RIAA loses due to the legal theory of "dirty hands" - you
can't collect damages from somebody else for doing something that you are
engaged in as well).

IANAL, etc - if you're in a position where it makes a difference, get competent
legal advice. ;)
-- 
                                Valdis Kletnieks
                                Computer Systems Senior Engineer
                                Virginia Tech

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