> And what if you bought your CD from a man selling CD's out of his trunk on
> an alleyway? Do you really think that if you bought a TV this way, that the
> sale is legitimate?
If he was the owner of either item, then yes. Is there some statute against selling from trunks in alleyways that I am not aware of?
> If the material is stolen, the seller had nothing to
> sell you, and thus you bought nothing.
Correct., altough we are not discussing stolen property. Why are you changing the subject? Have you been brainwashed by Jack Valenti to believe that copyrighted ownership overrides physical property ownership?
> You may be in possession of the
> goods, but they can be retrieved by the rightful owner. To be an "owner"
> you must purchase from one with ownership, or at least rights in the goods.
> Thus, if the goods are illegitimate, you do not really "own" them under the
> law. The real owner can retrieve the goods, and then your cause of action
> is against the illegitimate seller.
You never quite answered my question from before. If I go to the store and purchase a blank CD am I the owner of that CD? Yes, of course I am. If I then make an infringing copy do I cease to be the owner of that CD as an item of personal property?
As a matter of making an actual argument, I seem to recall that a court can impound, erase, or destroy an infringing copy. The very fact that they have this power would seem to indicate that before and until a court grants such relief that the infringing copy remains property. If I infringe your poem by writing in a white board, would you tell me I no longer owner the white board? Why is a hard drive any different?
> Now, I don't have any caselaw handy that shows copyright working in this
> manner, but when teh statute says "own" the normal legal meaning of that
> term, unless defined in a contrary manner in the statute, applies. In that
> case, one cannot "own" illegitimate goods. That is not to say that
> copyright holders will attempt to retrieve the goods, for both economical
> and publicity reasons. But they likely could, if they wanted to.
Your reasoning is rather circular. Repeating one cannot "own" illegitimate goods (whatever that means) does not really prove anything, especially since you never answered "who does own it".
Suppose I see someone with a really nice Mercedes. I scratch your copyrighted work into the paint. Who owns the car?
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