Day 67 - 8/28/21 - Sat
- mainemoviepirate
- 5 days ago
- 3 min read
Journal Entry:
“Slept very little but still pumped. Got out of bed around 7:30 AM. HLR drink, meds. Now in the Library working on this Journal, Walking Distance, and then working on the Compassionate Release (CR) and motion. I’ll relentlessly put them in the mail next week. My second solo mission in the kitchen; most guys go in early and make sure everything is set. Feeling pretty confident.
BRUNCH: Scrambled Eggs (two servings, J.K. gave me his), Pancakes (four, ate half and then pieces out of the middle), Potato Wedges (ate some). Big Breakfast.
Continued the research for my First Sale Motion. I didn't find what I was looking for, which was that a director's cut would be a separate creation with its own copyright (check Star Wars, New Editions). However, because of the nature of Babes in Toyland, I believe my motion is still solid. It would involve detective work, plus the Government still didn't prove no first sale. If a rep from the Finigan Group had been at my trial and been able to identify The Director's Cut, it might have been different. MGM was just a distributor; they did not have any derivative rights. While there may have been an issue with The Finigan Group and the director who made that work, that wouldn't involve me. The infringement simply wasn't proven.
SUPPER: Chicken Chunks, potato, green beans. Put bread in reserve. Went outside and hung out with H.L. We were freaked out when the Head Kitchen CO, Lacisaro, came out and sat at our picnic table. He seemed much cooler than the other day when he busted me for chicken stealing. He talked to us like we were real people, not just guards and inmates. He asked me if he could ask me a weird question. I said, 'Ask me anything.' He wanted to know if my leg was waterproof. It was a cool exchange and way different than any other CO/inmate experience I had previously.
Did a little more legal research. Then I went to the TV room and watched some of The Intern, which I had seen before. ‘You’re in my Seat’ didn’t glean much tonight.”
Notes for Day 67 (Four Years Later)
Interesting day. Just as a warning, the journal entries to come will basically contain a lot of similar content about Copyright Law. Looking back, I see that it was basically me brainstorming about past copyright cases and precedents and trying to shoehorn them into my very unique criminal copyright case. The reason I started with the First Sale defense is because that was my lawyer’s strategy. Again, back at trial, my lawyer and the expert that he hired basically threw every possible defense at the court to see which would be allowed. First Sale was kicked back as not being ‘applicable,’ but Fair Use was allowed.
And since then, I have learned that my case was the very first Criminal Copyright Case in the United States where the court has allowed “Fair Use” to be used by a defendant as a possible defense.
But at this point in my journal, I didn’t have that information, so there are plenty of entries to discuss in the future where that reality will be apparent. But on a big-picture level, since my case was the first one in the United States, shouldn't we make sure as a society that we get it right? With more and more criminal cases and the evolving debate of Fair Use/technology/Copyright, I truly believe we should.
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