On 2/22/2010 5:50 PM, RJack wrote:
An unlicensed use of the copyright is not an infringement unless it conflicts with one of the specific exclusive rights conferred by the copyright statute.
Here is what Judge White said, in his decision post CAFC: <http://jmri.org/k/docket/395.pdf> Under the Copyright Act, a copyright owner is entitled to recover compensatory damages in the amount of actual damages suffered or the disgorgement of profits by the infringer attributable to the infringement. See 17 U.S.C. § 504(b). Although it is undisputed that Plaintiff distributed the copied work on the Internet at no cost, there is also evidence in the record attributing a monetary value for the actual work performed by the contributors to the JMRI project. (See Declaration of Victoria K. Hall in support of opposition, Ex. F (expert report of Michael A. Einhorn).)2 Because there are facts in the record which may establish a monetary damages figure, the Court finds Plaintiff has made a showing sufficient to establish the existence of a dispute of fact regarding the monetary value of Plaintiff’s work for purposes of his copyright claim. Accordingly, Defendants’ motion for summary judgment on this basis is denied. So even though Judge White is still fixated on monetary damage despite what his appeals court told him, he nevertheless finds that distributing a work for free on the internet does not free infringers from copyright infringement claims. _______________________________________________ gnu-misc-discuss mailing list gnu-misc-discuss@gnu.org http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gnu-misc-discuss