A target letter was sent to notify Gordon that he was under investigation for “criminal infringement of movies protected by copyright.” The Motion Picture Association also sent a cease and desist demand. After getting no response to a demand letter, they referred the case to the federal government. The Maine Attorney General’s office investigated and demanded that Gordon produce documents related to possible copyright violations. There were apparently hundreds of complaints from customers that the quality of their purchased DVDs was something less than stellar. The jury heard evidence that Gordon, operating through a small chain of video stores and several websites such as “” and “”, sold and rented copies of DVDs made from these tapes. The works at issue in Gordon were VHS tapes of not widely available movies. Duke Law School Center for the Study of the Public Domain, Access to Orphan Films 1 (2005). “They include a vast treasure trove of newsreels, documentaries, anthropological films, portraits of minority life in the U.S., instructional films, and even some Hollywood studio productions.” 3 3. “Orphan works” are old photographs, letters, manuscripts, films, and other creative material that is likely still protected by copyright but has no identifiable copyright owner. While perhaps mildly sympathetic to the “orphan works” problem in copyright law, the court concluded that the jury could easily have found knowledge that unauthorized duplication of even not widely available movies was illegal. The defendant, Douglas Gordon, testified to believing that selling DVDs of movies copied from old VHS tapes was not infringement because nobody appeared to own the rights and argued that the evidence was insufficient to find willfullness. The Copyright Act prohibits any person from “infring a copyright willfully and for purposes of commercial advantage or private financial gain. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit upheld the criminal conviction of “a film buff since childhood” on two counts of criminal copyright infringement. Orphan works, fair use, and criminal copyright infringement: First Circuit upholds conviction for copying movies from old VHS tapes.
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