Site Meter Copyright Talk » Blog Archive » Coupons, Copyright, Fraud

Coupons, Copyright, Fraud

by

An interesting legal battle is shaping up over this lawsuit for copyright infringment. The question prompts a really fun debate, but I wonder why copyright is being implicated at all - why not go after the guy for ordinary fraud and conspiracy type claims?

The issue is this: a company called coupons.com provides online, printable store coupons. The technology providing them is supposed to limit the number of coupons that can be downloaded. A fellow in California figured out that erasing some of the files in the software that ennables the downloading would allow the user to print unlimited numbers of the coupons - and potentially many more than the store intended to privide. Coupons.com calls this copyright infringement. The man says he didn’t copy or alter anything, he merely erased free-standing files from his own computer.

Unless the EFF or some other rights group steps up to help the legal defense, this case is likely to settle long before a court has a chance to issue an opinion on this question.


Leave a Reply


About Copyright Talk

Copyright touches writers, music lovers, teachers, musicians, businesses, artists, amateur filmmakers, students, libraries, and publishers – to name just a few! In other words, these days everyone is affected by copyright and everyone needs to have at least a basic understanding of it. Copyright Talk discusses issues and developments everyone needs to know about.

Copyright Talk Author(s)

Business & Finance Channel Posts

  • Copyright Basics in the Digital World
    Copyright. The concept is pretty simple – copyright provides a territorial claim to intellectual property (creative ideas set down in a fixed medium) that allows the creator to profit from the [...]
  • Illegal Downloading Court hearing may be Webcast
    Although the RIAA has recently said that it will stop suing individual who may be illegally sharing music files - in other words, people the RIAA believes may be infringing their copyright but not as [...]
  • There's No Law Against Being Stupid
    Or anti-social, or even just plain mean. We tend to collectively cringe at the thought of great art treasures being destroyed, and yet we allow private ownership of art works and the concurrent [...]
  • Obama's Appointments
    Washington lawyer Thomas Perrelli has been nominated by President-elect Obama for the position of associate attorney general, third in command at the Justice Department. Perrelli has much experience [...]
  • DRM for books?
    A recent column in the New York Times considers whether the ease of finding used copies of books is causing - or at least contributing to - the cratering of the publishing business. Although [...]
  • Lawsuits to End?
    The Wall Street Journal reports that the RIAA is planning to end its controversial anti-piracy strategy of filing copyright infringement lawsuits against any and all small time possible infringers, [...]
  • Google Settlement Draws Ire
    The proposed settlement between Google and various book publishers (which still needs final approval from the Court) is slowly getting more and more clear. There are more than 300 pages in the [...]
  • College Test Files
    There's a difference between access and copying. But the difference is not so intuitively obvious in the case of online archives. It is critical, however, in determining the possibility of [...]
  • Song-Swapping Lawsuits Face [real] Challenge
    The quick recap: * peer to peer file swapping is huge * recording industry believes song swapping interferes with sales * Song swapping really is a copyright infringment in many cases * Recording [...]
  • Google Agreement
    Remember the big dust-up over Google's plans to digitize all books everywhere in the world and beam them into everyone's head so all information throughout time would be universally [...]

Hot Off The Press