Yes, Trademark (which is actually statutorially unrelated to copyright) is a VERY DIFFERENT BALLPARK. Trademarks are rigid:
What the TM owner says, motherfucking goes. And I ain't joking. If you own a product bought from, say, Microsoft, they fully have the right to force you to discontinue use* of the product at their discretion. * = Provided they made you agree to it in a properly presented ToS.
If Jim's stuff is Trademarked, this is the only situation in which he can actually throw their ass in jail. Copyright alone cannot normally do that, as copyright violation is a civil matter unless libel or actual criminal damages occur.
----- Original Message -----
From: Chris Shaffer
To: SkunkworksAMA_at_yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, April 17, 2007 8:35 PM
Subject: Re: [SkunkworksAMA] second lice "skunked.com"
On 4/17/07, David Parenteau <kitfoxen_at_gmail.com> wrote:
At 07:27 PM 4/17/2007, Axle Gear wrote:
>It's not the redistribution that bothers me. (in fact, that's not even
>illegal. Long story, i'd need to quote sections of copyright law to
>explain. Even then most folks will ignore it.)
Quote them. I want you to try to defend that it's not illegal so that
people can see why defending like you may or may not is a bad idea.
Please don't get the mistaken idea that "it's okay as long as you don't
make money", because this will get you into a whole mess of trouble. The
only thing you are allowed to do unless specifically given rights otherwise
is re-sell the item, as long as you lose the copy and somebody else gains it.
In fact, years ago, there was chaos over Yahoo's ToS change about "The
right to publish blah blah blah" and people crying "We're giving away our
rights!"... Well, no, not giving away. You're just giving Yahoo the right
to show the stuff you put on their server to other people, otherwise Yahoo
doesn't have that right and cannot show it to people who request to see it.
Unless you are a lawyer, I would not ever advise anybody that
"redistribution is legal" unless you want folks like the RIAA to love you
for getting them more money from lawsuits against people who believe you.
Agreed. Jim is more qualified to go into the details of this than I am, but if I recall he's actually gone through the trouble of filling out paperwork and spending the money to have his characters registered as proper trademarks, rather than letting the standard "These characters copyright So-and-so" in the corner of the image do the work for him.
--
Chris Shaffer, sometimes known as "MythicFox" on varying messaging programs
http://mythicfox.livejournal.com
"Normal means you leave everything as it is and nothing ever changes. If you don't like that, you've got to do things that _aren't_ normal."-- Kirima Seiichi, Boogiepop wa Warawanai
Received on Tue Apr 17 2007 - 19:49:21 CDT