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]