[Sca-cooks] Copyright infringement and the social networking backlash

[Terry Decker]

I took a look at the article and was interested to see that there were 
comments on civil suit but not on criminal copyright infringement.  I would 
think that this might be a case where the Feds could get involved with a 
criminal prosecution.

To my knowledge, criminal prosecution requires that a copyright exist, that 
the defendent did infringe the copyright, that the infringement was 
"wilfull", and that the defendent produced 10 or more copies of one or more 
copyrighted works with a total retail value of $2,500 within 180 days.  The 
trickiest part of making this criminal is that last requirement as it may be 
hard to prove.  I would suggest that the offended parties talk to the 
Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section of the Justice Department 
to see if they would be interested in prosecuting.

Usually, the difficulty is in proving "wilfullness," but I think the email 
exchanges may demonstrate that adequately.

If anyone wants more information try Prosecuting Intellectual Property 
Crimes.  It's a Justice Dept. manual that I think is online and the Criminal 
Copyright Infringement is covered in Chapter 2 or 3 (IIRC).

Bear


I went to Google News to look for stories and found several. Good
summary here--
http://www.edrants.com/the-cooks-source-scandal-how-a-magazine-profits-on-theft/
The Cooks Source Scandal: How a Magazine Profits on Theft
By
Edward Champion – November 4, 2010
I can't do a lot of research due to the late hour and the eyes not
being ok yet, but it is
fascinating.

Johnnae