[ale] Phillips CD patent

[tfreeman at intel.digichem.net]

IANAL either, and a copy of the letter from Phillips might make much 
confusion go away, but I understood the issue to be the use of blank media 
from manufacturers who are not paying for the use of the technology. As 
such, perhaps, and IANAL, the legal theory may fall more on the side of 
knowingly receiving stolen goods (a crime I think) than innocence due to 
be duped and deceived. The clue might be whether or not Phillips indicated 
brands which they are accusing of the patent infraction. How much legal 
exposure the end customer has in something like this is likely to be 
debatable even in the legal circles.

My personal guess is that it is a scare tactic, but with enough potiential 
validity to be worth checking it further. 

Of course, IANAL, and I'm stating an opion of mine, not advice.

On Sat, 14 Dec 2002, Christopher Bergeron wrote:

> Hmmm.. IANAL, but this sounds like a scare tactic.  If you bought a 
> product and aren't the manufacturer of the drive, I don't think you can 
> be held accountable for creating cdroms/dvdroms with the device.  Since 
> you're not "creating" the cdroms by hand (as if it were possible), and 
> you're using a vendor's device, the vendor should be the only person 
> that can be accountable.
> 
> Thats just my belief, but as I said, I Am Not A Lawyer.
> 
> -CB
> 
> Any possibility of you posting the letter or a scanned image of it?
> 
> 
> 
> James P. Kinney III wrote:
> 
> >I just got the strangest letter from Phillips IP legal group. Basically,
> >they own butt loads of patents on CD technology. Including the making of
> >the disks themselves. Apparently, there are some cd-r cd-rw and dvd-r
> >and dvd-rw disk makers that are not paying out their license fees to
> >Phillips for the making of the media. So the letter is a warning that if
> >I, or my company specifically, is using any of the "bootleg" blank
> >disks, Phillips will then consider that I am an accomplice and will be
> >subject to paying the license fee on the disks myself.
> >
> >WTF!!!
> >
> >  
> >
> 
> 
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