[DMCA-Activists] copyright infringement...the way business is done...also, inside,feasibility of boycott of MPAA and RIAA

[Dr. John Raymond Baker]

I hate to sound like a Johnny one note, but the facts are this.
Copyright law in the US grew out of copyright law from England.
Copyright law in England, was an attempt to control the ideas flowing out of
the printing presses...it was a transparent attempt to abridge free speech
and put a stopgate on the free flow of ideas.

In the USA, according to Copyright law , ANYTIME one produces anything of
original creation...be it a web log (blog), personal diary, scribble on
paper, memo to business associates, a macro, etc., it is already copyrighted
at the point of creation, as long as it is original and not a recreation of
something already created.

This is different from copyright REGISTRATION...different in that, should
you go to court to enforce your copyright rights, the registration serves as
presumptive evidence that you are the true copyright holder (though, in
actual practice, this is probably a farce in that it is only the more
business or legal minded that register copyrights).

The copyright registration process can sometimes take a long time. My last
registered copyright took around 7 months, because the anthrax scare had
thrown the process behind.

But, you do NOT have to register a copyright to be the holder of the
copyright (reference the previous explanation of the point of creation
doctrine).

The point of all these ramblings is simple. If you strictly iterpret the
copyright law under the point of creation doctrine, copyright infringement
is done daily, everywhere, and indeed, is the machinery of business. For
example, a manager creates a memo. He e-mails it to one person. That person,
without express permission from the creator, makes photostatic copies of the
memo and tacks it to the bulletin board....YIKES...copyright infringement.
Example two. I send a copy of a complaint to a governmental entity.
They make a copy and refer it to another agency without getting my express
permission...YIKES...copyright infringement. And, there is no "implied"
consent of copying here....But, even more cogent to the DMCA...people daily,
by visiting websites, download (i.e. make a copy) of the pictures and text
on the site. This copying is without the express permission (though some
would say that a page open to the public implies permission, this will not
hold water...expecially for pages which say the page and all contents are
copyrighted and all rights reserved). The proof of this copyright
infringement of web sites is found in the temporary internet cache of every
machine surfing the net.

So, what if EVERY person who writes anything, draws anything, records
anything, codes anything, or otherwise creates ANYTHING of an original
nature, became as aggressive as the MPAA and RIAA? The courts would
literally have NO time to do anything else.

Does copyright law really protect original material? Not always. In a famous
case involving a textbook author who sued for copyright infringement another
textbook author, even though there were entire pages in which the second
author had a verbatim copy of the first author's text, without attribution
of the first as a source (the second claimed original authorship), the judge
ruled that both men had comparable educational training, and that it was
conceivable that the second author could independently come up with the
exact same language on the same topic. The court ruled that no copyright
infringement was proven.

We KNOW who is trying to shove their proverbial fist down our throats...the
MPAA and the RIAA. Where do they get their money to do this crap? FROM US!

I say that we should ALL seriously examine the possibility of a boycott
against movies produced by companies who support the MPAA's actions. I say
we boycott any and all music recording companies that support the RIAA. The
recording industry is hurting and they are blaming internet music piracy.
Let's put a name to why they are really hurting. I say we release a press
statement of boycotting companies supporting the MPAA and RIAA...and even,
boycott the software companies supporting the Business Software Alliance.
The way to disable these enemies to attack them by starving their
coffers....hit them in the pocketbook...Nothing like a little bankruptcy to
shock them back into seeing who they really should be trying to please...the
buying public.

Thanks for the forum.

Sincerely,
Dr. John Baker