Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/06/15

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Subject: Re: [Leica] Re: Copyright questions
From: "Mxsmanic" <mxsmanic@hotmail.com>
Date: Fri, 15 Jun 2001 09:00:25 +0200
References: <4.1.20010614153644.01e3b100@xsj02.sjs.agilent.com>

Jim Brick writes:

> To make a long story short, Chuck won and the
> panel of judges stated that Chuck was in no way
> infringing upon the R&R HOF trademark or copyright
> and that further legal avenues pursued by the
> R&R HOF would be pointless.

It is interesting to note that a relatively recent change in U.S. copyright law
_explicitly_ prohibits architects from suing photographers for taking (and
selling) pictures of their buildings.  In other words, in the U.S., it is no
longer possible for an architect to sue a photographer for copyright
infringement because the photographer takes a picture of a building the
architect designed without the architect's authorization and then sells it.  The
copyright law now explicitly states that this is _not_ infringement.

I suspect this change was made as a result of widespread abuse of copyright law
by architects; I consider it a change for the better.  Unfortunately, this abuse
is still widespread in other jurisdictions.

> The real question is, does US copyright law
> protect foreign produced and owned works?

Yes, to a certain extent, if that country also provides copyright protection for
U.S. works, and subject to a number of caveats that only lawyers seem to be able
to figure out (and sometimes even they cannot correctly guess what a court will
decide).

In reply to: Message from Jim Brick <jim_brick@agilent.com> ([Leica] Re: Copyright questions)