In a message dated 1/22/2008 6:12:05 PM Pacific Standard Time, RGPranin@aol.com writes:
I want to state for the record "Don't sweat it, It's cool" this is totally not for profit. and legal. Them suing me would make my day. The only way I can get payback is if they actually waste money on suing me
Rodney,
I wouldn't presume to advise you on Admiralty Law, which is the only category of law I noticed you listed under by the Long Beach Bar Assn. Not entertainment, intellectual property or copyrights.
It's a touchy subject right now, particularly with the Writers' Strike continuing. I have clients who make their living by writing and/or performing. None of them are real thrilled that modern technology makes it possible for anyone to copy their work and leave them unpaid.
There is room for "fair use", and for sharing manuals and other books. But outright copying and distributing the copies, which appears to be what you were originally offering, goes beyond either fair use or sharing.
You may have a philosophical contempt for private property, or the rights of creative artists, or just for those people who write poor, misspelled, overpriced instructions. But as an attorney, you should know better than most people that the law does not permit one to act on personal whim.
There are rules. We are required to stop at traffic lights, even when we think we're fast enough to cross the intersection ahead of oncoming traffic. We are not permitted to put ag fuel in our over-the-road vehicles, even if the gropenator is going to reduce the number of inspectors and increase our chances of getting away with it.
Individuals have the right to start and run their own businesses, for their own profit (or loss). If that business is writing really bad instruction books for car repairs, the business may be subject to public criticism and advice not to buy the product. But just because someone feels that the product is poorly made does not give that person the right to copy the product and sell or give it away in competition with the business that originated the product.
One of my clients was nominated for a 'Best Actor' Oscar this morning. That client invests his time, energy and creative skill into transforming someone elses (sometimes his own) writing into theatrical presentations. If everyone could just rip-off his performances with their home DVD writer, he, and the hundreds of other people involved in making his films would lose their income - lose their ability to create the performances, and deprive both them AND the audience of the opportunity to pursue their own interests.
Why should any individual's desire to lash out at a business they don't like be a justification from stealing the food from the mouths of the people who created that business, or the products from the customers who don't share the contempt of the critic?
Copyrights have a purpose, just as traffic laws do. Why should any of us be permitted to pick and choose which laws we want to obey and which we want to flaunt?
Tom
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