Mr. Rasch:

(Sorry, English is not my native language.)

Thats OK.. law isnt mine either..

1. In Mexico City, everybody knows where illegally copied music or movies are on sale. Could the record industry (American or Mexican) sue the major of the City for protecting the piracy dealers? (If you know who the criminal is and do nothing you are an accomplice.)

Tolerating and profiting are different things. You may be liable under derivative (contributory) copyright liability if you profit from the infringing activity or have the "ability to control" it. Thus, at a swap meet, where you charge admission to get in, and someone inside sells infringing materials, the owner of the swap meet can be held liable for the infringement.

2. A person is the owner of his/her own image. That?s why you pay models. Why is not possible for an actor/actress to sue a paparazzi? (If you take a photo of a cartoon character and publish it without permission you are sued, but if you publish a paparazzi photo of an artist nothing happens.)

Your face is not a copyrighted work, but is protected under some state laws. Paparazi can be sued for invasion of privacy, intruding into what is called "seclusion" or torts like "false light."


3. Some web pages have a music background. That music is stored in temporary files of your computer (nobody asks you). Now you have an illegal copy: storing is a crime. Could the owner of the computer sue the site company for the risk they have ?seed??

You can always sue. Generally a "cache" copy - that is one incidentally made as a consequence of vieiwing is not considered and infringement particularly where the copyright holder allowed it to be viewed online. However, thats just a general rule. If the original posting is infringing, then the viewing and the "copying" may also be infringing.

4. Suppose a person have a trademark named ?music?. Could that person sue anybody who uses this word in mass media? (Don?t laugh, this is real: a Mexican politician registered his name as a mark in order to avoid bad commentaries.)

Generally you cant "trademark" something that is descriptive. Thus, terms like "music" or "jewelry" or "lawyer" cant be trademarked. You CAN trademark your name if it is in connection with the provisions of goods and services - e.g., Ford, Macy's, McDonalds...

Some recent cases allow trademarking of famous names particularly for domain names.. e.g., Cher, Schwartzenneger, etc.



5. I?m not going to sue you for correcting my grammar (and I won?t pay you either).

Why would I correct your grammar? Then you would want to correct mine!

Thank you.

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