MJ Ray wrote:
Thanks to international treaties (damn you WTO!), trademark and copyright law has slowly moved from the civil law into criminal law.
Well put, MJ. If copyright was solely a tort, jobsworths would be out of business. But it is easy for corps to lobby and have copyrights moved into the into realm of criminal law, thereby externalising the expense of taking legal action to the taxpayer. Corporate welfare. Enuf said. I could rant on about this for days ... but OT for this list.
Civil law usually requires action by the trademark holder, whereas criminal law only needs some jobsworth in the state to act.
I was curious about "jobsworth". <http://www.google.com.au/search?q=define%3Ajobsworth> digs these up: "A jobsworth is a person who uses his or her job description in a deliberately un-cooperative way, or who seemingly delights in acting in an obstructive or unhelpful manner." Sounds like a job description for opposition politicians ;) "Jobsworth is slang for a person who is very pedantic at work." Yes, I've worked with these types. My response: Get a Life. A Koha Life! cheers rickw -- _________________________________ Rick Welykochy || Praxis Services English doesn't borrow from other languages, it follows them down dark alleys, knocks them over and goes through their pockets for loose grammar. -- James D. Nicoll