[conspire] Book Burning continues thanks to the Feds

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Ruben Safir (ruben at mrbrklyn.com):

> Every few years the copyright commision holds hearings on the
> DMCA...those hearing,...not just those.

That's not a commission, and there is no such thing as 'the copyrights
commission'.  It's the Librarian of Congress -- currently James H.
Billington.  

17 U.S.C. 1201(a)(1), which was part of DMCA's amendments to the
national Copyright Act, requires the Librarian of Congress every three
years consult with the LoC's Register of Copyrights and the Commerce
Department's Assistant Secretary for Communication and Information.  The
Librarian is then required to determine where users of any particular
classes of copyrightable works are or will be adversely affected by by
DMCA's prohibition against 'circumvention'.

Once again, this has absolutely nothing to do with the availability of
17 U.S.C. 504 in civil litigation against other people violating
copyrights that you haven't bothered to register with the Library of
Congress.


> And while you think you might be able to sue successfuly for copyright
> infringment without registration, try it.  Have fun.  
> 
> I'm certain everyone in the courtroom will be polite.

Lawyers do not agree with you.

  Why register?  If you do not register with the United States Copyright
  Office, you will only be able to recoup a small fee if you sue (in the
  $750.00 range), and you will have to pay for your own lawyer's fees,
  which, as you can imagine, will far exceed $750.00.  Registration gives
  you access to the $150,000.00 prize for each instance of copyright
  infringement discovered.

http://www.longislandlawyerblog.com/how-to-recover-damages-when-someone-steals-your-intellectual-property

Now, as a matter of procedure, I forgot until now that you _would_
actually be required by the court to register the copyright just before
filing your civil lawsuit for infringement (adding $35 to your other
litigation costs) -- except for foreign works, in which case you can sue
infringers without taking out a registration first.  In either of those
cases, you would, as I mentioned, be prohibited from collecting
statutory damages (because of lack of constructive notice before the
infringement occurred), and would only be able to get the injunction
against _further_ infringement (plus the small fee mentioned above,
which I forgot, earlier).

-- 
Cheers,               "This is the first time in my lifetime that Irish people are 
Rick Moen             able to go 'What?  You're going to England?  It's full of 
rick at linuxmafia.com   terrorists.  Come to Ireland.  We've no terrorists at all.  
McQ! (4x80)           They're all playwrights, now.'"    -- Dara O'Briain