Re: WIPO Copyright Treaty Article 11 & Grammar

On Thu, 23 Apr 1998, Terry Carroll <carroll[_at_]tjc.com> wrote:
>
> This has to be taken in the context of the phrase "exclusive right"
> under section 106. The copyright owner has exclusive rights to
> reproduce, etc. the work. Done by someone else, those are infringing.
> They are the rights of the copyright owner.
>
> A measure qualifies as a technological protection measure under
> 1201(b)(2)(B) if it limits another's attempt to exercise a right that
> isn't theirs to exercise, e.g., the right to reproduce the work, etc.
>
> It's sloppy, I agree, because it borders on oxymoronic to speak of
> exercising a right that one doesn't have.
>
> I really think section 106 would have been better described as the
> Patent Act does. A copyright doesn't confer any rights to reproduce a
> work; it merely confers the right to exclude others from reproducing it.
> I believe that this is what section 106 means when it characterizes the
> rights as "exclusive rights": it means the rights are to exclude. But
> that's not the ordinary meaning of those words. An ordinary reader
> would interpret them as granting a right to the author to reproduce the
> work, and that that right is exclusively granted to the author.

Does the above mean that an action against an offender can be pursued in the absence of a claim of copyright infringement?

Bob Schwartz
<shebam[_at_]access.digex.net> Received on Fri Apr 24 1998 - 15:54:25 GMT