Originally Posted by guice
I'm no lawyer, but I'm pretty sure there is no case here. WM isn't "stealing" any bandwidth here. They are using very publicly available links and webpages. Now, I do know of many cases that do *try* to go this route, many of them are pure money grabs or publicity stunts, but lawyers have tried. Bandwidth "theft" isn't "theft" and it isn't "piracy." That is definitely a fact.
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While no lawyer myself ..as of yet...piracy is piracy. Piracy can mean many different forms of theft or acts of thieving. If you took the time to look at the DMCA that i mentioned you would see that while bandwidth theft is not directly mentioned, there are other things directly linked to it that are.
You are right about the links and webpages being very public..to look at and only to be used in the way of the site's host or supporters see fit. Its been said many times before that this site and it's sister sites suffer bandwidth problems due to WM. To me and to nearly most all judges..that doesn't mean much, but throw in that your site is ad/premium user supported and the excessive use of bandwidth by a non-authorized party is causing your site/company a loss in income/money/support would be all they needed to hear.
Carbonite is trademarked/copyrighted to Carbon Based Creations, LLC....which means that any use of this addon without their consent is piracy. Actually they wouldn't even have to copyright it..in 1989 measures were taken to protect things like this where lets say Tekkhub didn't copyright his addons...if someone were to re distribute his addons without his consent. While not copyrighted..he would still be protected.
By agreeing to host the authors addons and in return the site allowing authors to upload addons.. whether it be email, verbal, or and actual written contract, these things have to happen. WM had neither. So by saying there was no room for legal action in this situation...you are wrong. (after re reading the post..u didn't actually say that but i got the impression that's what you're getting at)
I can pull books out for more clearer explanations if needed
ps
as for the publicity stunt thing...i believe that if ZAM or any of its websites really wanted to take legal actions they would have when the problem first arose. The point of my first post was just to bring the fact that they didn't/haven't to the front. This post is basically letting you see what i see