11/21/16

Review: The Criminal Law Of Intellectual Property and Information: Cases and Materials, 2nd Edition


Review: The Criminal Law Of Intellectual Property and Information: Cases and Materials, 2nd Edition

Asha Puttaiah

The Criminal Law of Intellectual Property and Information: Cases and Materials, 2nd Edition by Geraldine Moohr, Jacqueline Lipton, and Irina Manta (2015, West Academic.)

A law enforcement officer buys original copyrighted movies for his video rental shop. In order to prevent damage to his newly acquired video property, he produces one copy of each original movie and rents the copy while keeping the originals in a safe place. Has he violated the copyright owner’s federally recognized property right with his self-created ‘insurance’ program? Is it a criminal violation? Is a civil infringement? Does his distribution business implicate the Commerce Clause because it entails interstate commerce? If yes, does this invoke a federal criminal statute? Or is it merely a localized property right infringement? Is it merely bad or good business practice? Does property right infringement constitute theft? Does the law enforcement officer’s role as a business owner affect what he is authorized to do with the copyrighted video in comparison to what he is authorized to do as a private citizen? As a law enforcement officer, should he have known better? One last question – Is your head spinning yet?

The sooner you are willing to accept that the analysis of the criminal law of intellectual property and information requires creativity and endurance to trudge through the madness, the more messy fun there is to be had. Moohr, Lipton and Manta in this 2ndedition provide us with a framework with which to wade our way through this newly evolving virtual mudslide.

98 J. Pat. & Trademark Off. Soc’y 302(2016)

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