RE: RE: Re: How Many Trees? (WAS: URGENT: Immediate ethical issue

["GeneK" <gene -at- genek -dot- com>]

This is not entirely correct.  There is a statutory penalty
for infringement, but in the absence of income lost, the
minimum is $750 per instance (i.e., per copy distributed).
Other than that, I would agree that the likelihood of suit
over infringement in a product document is pretty low.
It's when the infringer is spewing thousands of copies of 
something saleable ala Napster that the copyright holders
start to see $$$ in filing suit.  Still, it'd be amusing to 
see what happens if Company X sues Company Y claiming a 
loss and Company Y produces a parade of tech writers who
testify that Company X declared the Customs value of manuals shipped overseas as zero, then laid them off 
telling them that documentation produced no "value added" 
benefit to the product...

Gene Kim-Eng


------- Original Message -------
On
Wed, 7 May 2003 12:49:37 -0700 (PDT) DaLy?wrote:

As Eric stated - a company has to prove a loss in
income to sue for copyright infringement. People do
not usually choose a product based on its
documentation (or lack of it), so loss of income is
not easily proven. Neither of these companies would
sue the other for copyright infringement.


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