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To: Jim Robinson
Jim,
If you need to raise money to fight these lawsuits let us know. They are definitely trying to take our freedoms away.
This sounds like an unexpected expense.

Did these companies show specific threads that weren't excerpts in their complaints?

Do we have a list of the newspapers that don't mind us using their full articles, published somewhere on Free Republic? We need to let the good guys know that we appreciate them.
367 posted on 04/09/2004 8:07:17 AM PDT by FR_addict
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To: FR_addict
The difficulty in fighting first amendment cases is that only pornographers seem to have a financial stake in fighting "for" free speech.

Everyone else who wants to see their fair use and public domain provisions of the Constitution want to make "free" use of what someone else produced. Those defending their copyright have a financial stake greater than those defending their right to the material. Those who seek the material want to make it available for free (in the case of "fair use") while those who seek to protect the "public domain" fight a battle alone that "everyone" will try to cash in on once it is won.

Example: It's A Wonderful Life had lapsed into the public domain. Retroactively it's copyright was re-granted (a complete bastardization of copyright law). I believe "Republic Pictures" now owns it but I could be wrong. A number of companies used to release it to video and it is a factor in why so many channels broadcast this movie (it was FREE). RP wants to "protect" their copyright. If a public domain selling movie company like Sinister Cinema were to fight the issue that the copyright was reinstated unconstitutionally, they would fight the battle alone but face a lot of competition in the marketplace if they won.

The copyright owners always seem willing to pay more than those on the side of "right". Copyright law has become SO much more restrictive in the past 100 years.

418 posted on 04/09/2004 1:24:17 PM PDT by weegee (Maybe Urban Outfitters should sell t-shirts that say "Voting Democrat is for Old Dead People.")
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