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Newspaper May Have Given Implicit License To Copy

An anonymous reader writes "Following up on the story of Righthaven, the 'copyright troll' that is working with the Las Vegas Journal Review to sue lots of websites (including one of Nevada's Senate candidates) for reposting articles from the LVRJ, a judge in one of the cases appears to be quite sympathetic to the argument that the LVRJ offered an 'implied license' to copy by not just putting their content online for free, but including tools on every story that say 'share this' with links to various sharing services (including one tool to 'share' via Slashdot!)."

4 of 175 comments (clear)

  1. Um... by omglolbah · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Wouldnt this mean that any sharing of a link to your content would also give an implied license to copy?

    How exactly is this going to work? Does this mean that all newspaper stories are freely usable by anyone?... That will sure break a lot of things... :p

  2. Re:Reform is needed. by dfm3 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The Court system may be sick of it, but the lawyers sure as hell aren't.

    Not going to happen.

    Fixed that for you.

    We know who always wins these cases, and it's not always the plaintiff or defendant...

  3. Re:Reform is needed. by turbidostato · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "And the people who come to slashdot and think they have the right to any non-physical copyrightted work, even without paying for it."

    Not any. Only what the author already decided to make *public*.

  4. Re:Reform is needed. by gsslay · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You appear to be confusing 'troll' with "someone who disagrees with my perfectly correct opinions and therefore must be silenced".

    Trolls are generally not welcome, as they are not interested in discussion, just provoking reaction. They may not even care about the topic discussed one way or another. It's just a way of getting attention for their favorite topic; themselves.

    People who disagree, however, are essential for any good discussion forum. Informed and considered opinion rarely forms from people sitting around congratulating each other on how right they all are and how much they are in agreement. I can't imagine why anyone would want to hang out in any forum like that. Ideas need challenged to prove their worth. Calling those who provide the challenge 'trolls' or 'shills' are just ad hominen attacks that avoid the real issues.