[Foundation-l] Help requested on Commons copyright woes

Fri Jul 21 21:22:57 UTC 2006

Alison Wheeler wrote:

>On Thu, July 20, 2006 13:00, Brianna Laugher wrote:
>  
>
>>Here are some recent issues that I would like resolved:
>>* To what extent are we bound by local laws and to what extent are we
>>bound by Florida's laws (as the home of our servers).
>>    
>>
>Something that was in The Register yesterday
>(http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/07/19/youtube_copyright/) includes
>
>"That protection [the DCMA] is irrelevant in the UK, says another
>intellectual property expert. Kim Walker is a partner who specialises in
>media law at Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind OUT-LAW.
>...
>Because this is intellectual property, the law that applies is that of the
>place the alleged infringement took place," said Walker. "That applies
>even if the servers are in Madras or the Channel Islands."
>
I suspect that this case will be fact driven, notably over who really 
owns the copyright and exactly what material is copyright.

The idea of "where the infringement takes place" is not viewed in the 
same way in the UK and other countries as it is in the US.  The UK views 
infringement as happening where the material is used or viewed.  By this 
doctrine the viewing of a protected site by a UK resident is sufficient 
to give the UK jurisdiction over the site.

It would appear though that an ISP would still need to be notified that 
there is an infringement before it has to take it down.

Ec