[p2p-hackers] no subject (file transmission)

[Paul Campbell]

On Tue, Feb 22, 2005 at 11:39:52AM +0000, Ian Clarke wrote:
> 
> On 22 Feb 2005, at 03:09, Nick Szabo wrote:
> 
> >Disclaimer -- IANAL and the following are personal not legal opinions.
> >
> >The "found valid by a jury" business is FUD -- it's meant to 
> >intimidate those receiving the cease & desist letters into thinking 
> >they will lose, but the jury finding has no direct legal effect on 
> >future cases.
> 
> IANAL either, but an IP lawyer told me that jurys determine matters of 
> fact, where as the validity of a patent is a matter of law, and 
> therefore a jury is incapable of finding that a patent is valid.

False. Juries can decide both the facts and the law. Judges often refuse to
allow them to do so unless they are instructed to do otherwise. There is a
huge body of information about this. Specifically, there is the issue of
jury nullification. In essence, a jury can decide to totally ignore the law
and decide for innocence in a criminal case or decide for the defendant in
a civil case in spite of whatever legal paperwork exists.

This was most prominent during prohibition when it was very difficult or
impossible to get a conviction simply because the power of jury nullification
was raised in jury instructions and the resulting juries simply refused to
convict.