Former janitor ordered to repay $78,000 for discs from trash

[RC]

Former janitor ordered to repay $78,000 for discs from trash

The Associated Press - Saturday, February 03, 2007
FARGO, N.D.

A former janitor at the post office here has been ordered to repay more than $78,000 after taking undeliverable compact discs and DVDs from trash bins and selling them to record stores.

James Chalupnik, 46, of Fargo, also was given two years of probation.

Chalupnik pleaded guilty in federal court last October to copyright infringement. Attorneys debated Friday whether the record company, BMG Columbia House Inc., incurred losses.
"He's not going to walk out of here having profited from this crime," U.S. District Judge Ralph Erickson said. "It's just not going to happen."

http://www.in-forum.com/ap/index.cfm?page=view&id=D8N1U2480

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Let's see if I have this stright... If he had taken, say books a library had thrown away, magazines from a dumpster behind a book store, clothes from a dumpster behind a clothing store, he'd a been ok. But because this was music, a loss was incurred because this was copy right infringement? He didn't reproduce anything. So how could this be copy right infringement? His crime was dumpster diving.

If I write/record a song and toss it in the dumpster 'cause I don't want it and someone digs it our and sells it, I'm out of luck. So why is BMG so special?
BMG set themselves up for a loss because they stated they did not want their stuff back and specified it be dumped. If I were the judge the janitor would have walked.

[ixion]

1. His crime was dumpster diving.

Yep. That's it. It was stuff they were going to dispose of anyway.

Dumpster diving is a crime in 'Murika.

"A man works hard for his trash."
-- Ren and Stimpy cartoon.

[Toots]

2. If he had given the stuff away there would have been no crime but he wanted to profit

I'm not sure the crime is what they are claiming though. It should be doing business without a license or failing to pay sales tax or something along those lines. The Supreme Court has ruled that once something is in the garbage it is fair game and no longer private property..

[ima_sinnic]

3. what was the "crime"?

I have done much "professional dumpster diving," rooting through dumpsters and trash piles, finding good stuff, and selling it at the flea market and on eBay. So sue me already.

on edit: just remembered the guy on Antiques Roadshow who had an oil painting he'd dug out of a dumpster. It turned out to be worth $10,000! I was so jealous, I was clawing my eyes out! :D

[Gold Metal Flake]

10. Imagine dumpster diving at a Hollywood studio.

I've done it. Microphones, speakers, electronics, vintage furniture. I worked on a major (and very old) studio for years and watched the renovation activity carefully.
"Ya throwing this out?"
"Yup."
"Can I have it?"
"Yup."
"I'll get a pass for the gate."
"Knock yerself out, don't make a mess digging."

This poor bastard had a crappy lawyer. He pled out under enormous pressure, no doubt. If he had some legal brains on board and some resources, he probably could have ridden this out.

[ima_sinnic]

12. sounds like dumpster-diver heaven!

My daughter showed me the wonderful free piles all over the place in Berkeley and Oakland -- wish we had some of those here in north central Florida -- she had the neatest odd little things she'd scrounged.

Yeah, the guy got royally screwed. I wonder if he can appeal?

[Gold Metal Flake]

16. He pled; he's dead.

"Chalupnik pleaded guilty in federal court..." Ouch. :-(

Central Florida. I'd be working the yard sales heavily for mid-century stuff for Ebay, but you are probably on that. I moved north of LA, but when I was in Glendale I used to work the yard sales from Eagle Rock to Northridge for stuff. The swap meets were better in the 1990s, especially the defunct Pierce College swap meet. I got some of my best stuff there. Ah, those were the days.

[hobbit709]

4. Remind me not buy anything

from BMG Columbia House in the future.

[lonestarnot]

5. Oh so the guy that digs the cans from the dumpster every weekend

and then sells them for money to buy food is now going to jail? WTF? :shrug: Are aluminum cans patented?

[Poll_Blind]

6. I don't get it- Who did he profit from if these were thrown away? n/t

PB

[NashVegas]

7. It's the Same Logic Used Against (Some) Bootleggers

They have access to a product a record label doesn't want to invest the dollars necessary to market it to maximum profit.

So, they profit for themselves.

[Dhalgren]

8. You know, the point you make has always stumped me.

If there is a market for your bootlegged items at a certain price, and this market is causing the producer of the item recognizable losses, then why doesn't the producer "invade" that market with original product and co-opt the bootleggers? If the "problem" is large enough to cause losses to the producer, then it is large enough to generate profits - right? I have never understood that...

[RC]

9. It is control. Keeping the supplies tight allows them to

sell at a higher price.
How else do you suppose they can afford to pay the CEO 400% over the surf making the product. Also the artist gets a percentage of units sold, not a percentage of the money received, taken in. Sell less at a higher price affords the CEO his higher cut at the expense of the artist.

[NashVegas]

11. Some Have Done It

Pearl Jam did, a couple of years ago.

The problem is in the promotional budget. If you misfire or mis-guess your market, you stand to possibly lose money, or not make enough money for it to be profitable enough to cover all the overhead. There is a matter of time/labor involved, as well.

Digital delivery cuts way, way, way down on the overhead necessary to be profitable.

Clear Channel made a big, huge, hoopla over their program to burn and sell CDs from live concerts in their venues two years ago, but I haven't heard very much about that lately. Either the program was so successful that they don't need to market it anymore, or it wasn't as profitable as they were hoping. I would expect to see this program mentioned on every ticket for a Clear Channel (Live Nation, now?) concert sold. Is it?

[happyslug]

13. From Reading the Article, the Post Office seems NEVER to have technically "threw Away" the Discs.

Thus since the Discs were NOT technically "Thrown Away" they were still the property of the person's who mailed the Discs. As part of mailing the discs the Postal Service said it would Destroy the Discs rather then return the Discs to the shipper. Thus discs were to be "Destroyed" not thrown away. Now as part of that Destruction the disco went into a Dumpster which (In my opinion from reading the Article) remained in Post Office Property. While on the property the Janitor, a working for a contractor of the Postal Service, used his access to the dumpster to get the Discs. As part of his contract he had been told (and this is done often by the Postal Service) that you can take NOTHING from the mails, even in mail disposed of in a Dumpster. Thus the Janitor broke his agreement NOT to take things off of Postal ServicE property and he violated Postal Regulations.

Now had the Janitor just waited for the Garbage Company to come by and take the Dumpster and dived into it either on the Truck or while it waited ot be dumped a the landfill, he would have a better argument (the Dumpster would no longer be on Federal Property). That is NOT what happened here for most Dumpsters once picked up are taken straight to the nearest dump and a such such discs are generally NOT recoverable. In this case I suspect the Dumpster was in a fenced area of the Post Office and thus NOT open to the general public. As such the Postal Service had the right to expect NO ONE to recover anything thrown into said dumpsters. Notice the Article said the POSTAL Authorities were the first to notice something was wrong when Postal Employees reported finding discs outside the Dumpster.

As to normal Dumpster Diving, remember most Dumpsters are NOT in fenced in Areas of private property, as such anyone can "recycle" anything thrown into the Dumpster. If the Dumpster is in a Fenced in area, you can NOT (The Fence shows an expectation of privacy). I suspect that is the difference in this case for why else would the Post Office put a Camera on its Dumpster unless it was in a fenced off area. If the Dumpster was NOT in a fenced off area, anyone could dive into the Dumpster and be violating no laws (OR worse from a Business point of View, have someone LIVING in the Dumpster and have such person hauled away with the trash). Thus Most Dumpsters for larger companies tend to be Fenced in Areas, and with that fence an expectation of privacy.

[porphyrian]

14. McDonalds does the same thing.

When a Big Mac gets old (twenty minutes under the heat lamps, or something like that), they throw it out. But, if you pull it out of the garbage and eat it, they see it as losing the cost of a Big Mac, which they believe you should've purchased from them. You can get fired for doing that there.

[rock]

15. What'd you in for Lefty?

Dumpster diving. If you don't shut up, I'll give you some of the same!