Re: Publishing an Infringement (again)

Robert Baron <rabaron[_at_]pipeline.com> wrote:
>
> Without our scholar claiming fair use, and accepting a museum's copyright
> in its reproductive photographs, how does he go about reproducing the
> alleged infringing work? If Museum A gives permission to reproduce the
> Calendar cover, is the scholar responsible for the 2nd generation
> infringement, or does responsibility go back to the original culprit
> (Museum A)? Or is this an unreproducible work?
>

If you copy someone else's work without authorization, you are an infringer. It does not matter that you were copying an intermediary's work with permission, if the intermediary is itself an infringer. See Lipton v. Nature Co. (2d Cir. 1995). [Of course, you might have a claim against the intermediary for misrepresentation or conceivably for indemnification, if you were misled].

Mark Lemley
Assistant Professor, University of Texas School of Law Of Counsel, Fish & Richardson, P.C.
mlemley[_at_]mail.law.utexas.edu

You can find a list of my articles and books, and information on how to obtain them, at http://www.law.utexas.edu/lemley/pubs.htm

For information on the Intellectual Property program at UT, see http://www.utexas.edu/law/intelprop/ Received on Mon Jun 23 1997 - 23:39:29 GMT