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Hope this isn't a taboo topic

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Tiger-Heli:


--- Quote from: MikeQ on January 20, 2006, 09:13:08 am ---I know patents that are filed by individuals who work at a company behave this way.  I've filed patents through my company.  When the patent is awarded, I'm listed as the inventor but my company owns the patent and I have no claim or right to use it.  I could however license it from my company.

--- End quote ---
But that's because the company you work for made you sign an agreement that anything you develop while working for them becomes their property.

MikeQ:

Sure that is true, but Company A would do the same.  The guy who owns Company A wouldn't have all the copyrights in his name.  They would be in the companies name.  If they were in his name, Company B wouldn't want to buy Company A because Company A has not value without the copyrights.  If Company B did buy Company A  for other assets and the copyrights were kept in Guy A's name.  Company B would have no right to them.

The post below comes from www.copyright.gov.  Actually, there is no clear rule here.  It basically says that the transfer of copyrights is done by contract.  So whatever is agreed to between two parties is legal.  This could be both retain full rights, partial rights, one has no rights, etc...   So this would be really ugly to figure out.  On a ROM by ROM basis, you would have to track a ROMS ownership back to the source and find all the agreements in place that govern that ROM.  Some companies may have chosen to retain some of their titles while getting rid of others.  Not only that, if the transfer isn't exclusive, you don't even have to have anything it writing.  Also, everything is subject to state law.  So different states could have different interpretations of ownership.


"Any or all of the copyright owner's exclusive rights or any subdivision of those rights may be transferred, but the transfer of exclusive rights is not valid unless that transfer is in writing and signed by the owner of the rights conveyed or such owner's duly authorized agent. Transfer of a right on a nonexclusive basis does not require a written agreement.

A copyright may also be conveyed by operation of law and may be bequeathed by will or pass as personal property by the applicable laws of intestate succession.

Copyright is a personal property right, and it is subject to the various state laws and regulations that govern the ownership, inheritance, or transfer of personal property as well as terms of contracts or conduct of business. For information about relevant state laws, consult an attorney.

Transfers of copyright are normally made by contract. The Copyright Office does not have any forms for such transfers. The law does provide for the recordation in the Copyright Office of transfers of copyright ownership. Although recordation is not required to make a valid transfer between the parties, it does provide certain legal advantages and may be required to validate the transfer as against third parties. For information on recordation of transfers and other documents related to copyright, request Circular 12, "Recordation of Transfers and Other Documents."




MikeQ:

This probably explains why no one is trying to stop the proliferation of illegal ROMS.  The cost of determining who owns what and what they are legally allowed to do with it is to great to make it worth their while.

Tiger-Heli:


--- Quote from: MikeQ on January 20, 2006, 09:32:56 am ---This probably explains why no one is trying to stop the proliferation of illegal ROMS.  The cost of determining who owns what and what they are legally allowed to do with it is to great to make it worth their while.

--- End quote ---
Also, you are focusing on copyright, but Intellectual Property, and/or Software license and DCMA clauses could also be applied and differ slightly.

Also given that in general to win a suit you have to be able to show "proof of loss".  I.e. if I own the rights to Asteroids, and am producing and selling new repro Asteroids cabinets for $3000.00 - I might be able to show that website A illegally allowed my IP to be downloaded 2500 times, and maybe 5 percent of those people would have bought a machine from me if the ROM were not available, so I lost 125 sales or $375,000.

Of course, to do this, I have to 1) Actually own the rights to Asteroids and be prepared to prove I do, 2) Actually be selling cabinets for that price (and probably prove that people are actually paying that, not that I just have them for sale).  3) Pay attorneys to take the issue to court. 4) Convince a jury that the number of people that I said actually would buy a cabinet from me if the ROM were unavailable (I think that is a big stretch).

And if the website is overseas, the country involved may not respect U.S. copyright law, so I can't sue.

And even if I win, I get a judgement against the website, and the site owner will likely say: "Okay, I'll take the site down, and I owe you $375,000 dollars.  I have about $1000 and then I am filing bankruptcy, but I'll try to send you $25/month until I've paid you back".

Of course, just filing the suit without any chance of winning would probably be enough to get the U.S.-based website taken down.

brian23:


--- Quote from: Tiger-Heli on January 20, 2006, 09:56:41 am ---
And even if I win, I get a judgement against the website, and the site owner will likely say: "Okay, I'll take the site down, and I owe you $375,000 dollars.  I have about $1000 and then I am filing bankruptcy, but I'll try to send you $25/month until I've paid you back".

Of course, just filing the suit without any chance of winning would probably be enough to get the U.S.-based website taken down.

--- End quote ---

Actually, they'll garnish tax refunds and other financial assets to pay for the lawsuit. At least they won't put you out of house and home fortunately.


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