Does Capitol have a right to prosecute the thief?
Does Radiohead have a right to prosecute the thief?
Neither for that action. The crime was against you, and you insurance
company if you have theft insurance. You bought the right to use that CD.
The thief has denied you of your right to do so. You get to prosecute the
thief if you choose to. At this point the thief has not wronged the record
label as they have been paid for the CD copy.
These discussions always seems to come down to sort of strange examples. If
the thief did this, would you call Capitol Records? Of course you wouldn't.
Capitol Records has no jurisdiction in your house.
Should the thief take the CD, rip a few mp3's and start providing them on
the internet, Capitol Records could call the police and ask for their day in
court. It would be an interesting question that if you did NOT call the
police when this theft happened, and then the thief did this rip and release
process, would you be liable along with the thief as you did not take all
appropriate actions to protect yourself and your property? I think possibly
yes.... (Ugly!) ;-)
- Mark