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June 09, 2005

Wal-Mart Won't Print Photos If They Are Too Good

Because copyright is a strict liability tort, "photofinishers" who print photos (like Wal-Mart and Kmart) can be liable if the customer asks to print photos owned by third parties. As a result, photofinishers are now bouncing photos that look professional on the theory that they could be infringing--even if the customer certifies to the photofinisher that the customer owns the copyright. While this isn't the most profound consequence of copyright's strict liability scheme, it's a nice microcosm of how strict liability creates some "false negative" errors (pardon the pun).

Posted by Eric at June 9, 2005 08:12 PM | Copyright