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In Reply to: Re: A question Jane:/Joseph? posted by goth88 on August 20, 2002 at 16:24:05:
In a perfect world, rights are equal. But, in the real world your rights are protected up to and until they encroach upon my rights. Then it is up to us to work it out between us, and if we can't a third party (Judge or Jury) might decide.
The idea that two wrongs make a right has never been a good legal defense.
I do think that the reaction of this website has been reactive, rather than proactive. I have a hard time making sense out of how the idea that by ignoring requests to remove copyrighted material material and waiting for them to come and get "us" is going to bring the Family to justice.
Going into court as the defendant in a copyright infringement suit doesn't ad credibility to the case.
What could happen is that the Judge asks if the site knowingly republished copyrighted material. The answer is "Yes", and the gavel goes "bang".
There might not be an opportunity to explain about the Davidito book, since the judge could decide that has nothing to do with the copyright infringement case. Take a look at the stuff I've been posting about Henson vs Scientology if you want to see how much evidence can be disallowed in a case. Did you read the Amicus brief I posted over at NDN recently?
I'm not a lawyer, and I'm not qualified to give legal advice. But, I have been a defendant and a plantiff on several occasions.
My opinion? I'd avoid getting into a lawsuit, unless you really have money to burn. I'm not talking about tens and twenties, I'm taling about tens to hundreds of thousands.
What it looks like from where I sit is that a lot of people are spending a lot of time telling each other that the Family did bad things. You are preaching to the choir. Everyone here already knows that the Family did bad things.
Has anyone actually tried to speak to any law firms to see what the level of interest is in a class action suit? If they have, what did the lawyers say?
