From: Michael Wolfe <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Tue, 4 Jul 2017 19:12:20 -0700

Chiming in late on this thread to put to rest talk about the legal
necessity (or not) of enforcing copyrights. Rick suggests that perhaps
there is adverse possession for copyright -- use a piece of real
property for long enough in the right circumstances, and it becomes
yours, so why not so with IP?

There's a quick and easy answer here: there is no adverse possession
in copyright land. People sometimes get this misapprehension because
trademark rights can be lost or usurped through certain kinds of
third-party uses, but trademark is a very different body of law, and
even less "property" like than other kinds of "intellectual property."
And even then, the popular idea that trademark rights require
enforcement is overblown relative to the state of the law.

Of course, adverse possession is not the only way one can lose rights,
exactly, but fear not: the supreme court has weighted in on this very
issue in the context of the equitable defense of laches (which
essentially bars suits from folks who have sat on their rights). They
wrote:

"It is hardly incumbent on copyright owners, however, to challenge
each and every actionable infringement. And there is nothing untoward
about waiting to see whether an infringer's exploitation undercuts the
value of the copyrighted work, has no effect on the original work, or
even complements it. Fan sites prompted by a book or film, for
example, may benefit the copyright owner. See Wu, Tolerated Use, 31
Colum. J.L. & Arts 617, 619-620 (2008). Even if an infringement is
harmful, the harm may be too small to justify the cost of litigation."

https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=16343772915477319302

That's the long answer. The short answer is that the idea that there
is a legal need to enforce is hokum.


Michael Wolfe
Scholarly Communications Officer | UC Davis Library


On Friday, June 30, 2017, LIBLICENSE <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> From: Rick Anderson <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2017 03:39:36 +0000
>
> > Worth doing all this to make a careful show of protecting their rights against future malefactors who may be within reach?  I would be glad to be instructed.
>
> Honestly, I wonder if that may be exactly what it is. If you let your
> neighbor take care of your lawn for too long, the law will eventually
> recognize your lawn as his. Maybe these big copyright holders are
> filing suit in order to prevent something similar happening with their
> intellectual property.
>
> ---
> Rick Anderson
> Assoc. Dean for Collections & Scholarly Communication
> Marriott Library, University of Utah
> Desk: (801) 587-9989
> Cell: (801) 721-1687
> [log in to unmask]