Andrei's Google Talk

[Russel Winder]

On Tue, 2010-09-21 at 16:45 +0200, klickverbot wrote:
[ . . . ]
> I guess I don't quite understand US copyright laws here: Here in Europe, 
> if somebody accuses you of copying their work, they have to prove that 
> you in fact did copy it. Let's assume that person manages to convince a 
> judge that your code is in fact a copy of theirs. To defend yourself, it 
> should not really make a difference whether you claim that you read that 
> code or not.

I guess you are not a lawyer, I know I am not.  I wonder if you have
ever acted as an expert witness?  I suspect not, but I know I have.

> Even if it mattered whether you looked at the code or not (at least for 
> Europe, I'm reasonably sure that it does not), how are you going to 
> convince the judge that you didn't look at the source code? After all, 
> for Open Source projects, the source code is publicly available at the 
> internet, and if you did not write your program in jail or deep down in 
> the ocean in a submarine, there is always the possibility that you could 
> have looked at the code.

You are correct about the UK situation.  What an individual has done or
not done is not a primary factor, although it can be used in a
circumstantial way.

> As I said, I don't really know much about the US copyright laws, but if 
> you are used to common European jurisdiction, this situation seems 
> pretty bizarre…

There is no European jurisdiction in these matters -- at least not yet.
What happens in France, Germany, UK, Italy, etc. is independent until
such time that a directive is issued regarding copyright law. 
-- 
Russel.
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Dr Russel Winder      t: +44 20 7585 2200   voip: sip:russel.winder at ekiga.net
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