From: utzoo!decvax!yale-com!brunix!gh
Newsgroups: net.music
Title: Re: GIBBS GUILTY! FEVER FANS FORLORN!
Article-I.D.: brunix.1700
Posted: Fri Feb 25 08:40:40 1983
Received: Sat Feb 26 03:03:37 1983
References: brunix.1698,ihuxw.288

I agree that the verdict is very peculiar.  According to our local newspaper
report, the jury found that there was "infringement, intentional or not".
Yet according to my favorite source on copyright(*), infringement must be
intentional, and the plaintiff must be able to show that the defendent had
knoweldge of the original work.  If the Gibbs just happened to write a very
similar song, they should be in the clear.  The George Harrison case with
"My Sweet Lord" vs. "He's So Fine" turned on the point that George *must*
have heard the original, and the melody that he thought he was creating was
actually coming out of his dim memory.

	Graeme Hirst, Brown CS
	decvax!brunix!gh		gh.brown@udel-relay

(*) William S. Strong.  "The Copyright Book".  MIT Press, 1981.  [The best
guide for discusssions of the 1978 copyright law.]