what is legal position?

"Legal position" simply means the stance of the law.

For example, in contract law, a contract is an agreement that must be supported by consideration. Hence, your can say that the legal position regarding contracts is that consideration must be present.

Another example is the presumption of mens rea in criminal law. The law generally requires the defendant to possess "guilty intent" when committing the act in question. Hence, the legal position is that in general, unless the defendant has the pre-requisite Mens Rea when committing the act in question, he/she should not be punished.

legal position

2009-02-14 16:06:27 補充：
In general
Under United States copyright law, creative works published in the United States prior to 1923 are in the public domain. Some creative works published in the United States between 1923 and 1963 are still copyrighted.

2009-02-14 16:06:40 補充：
It is illegal (among other things) to reproduce or make derivative works of copyrighted works without legal justification.[2] Unless a thorough search is conducted to determine that a copyright has expired or not been renewed, it should be regarded as copyrighted.[3]

2009-02-14 16:07:02 補充：
Certain works have no copyright at all. Most material published in the United States before 1923, works published before 1978 without a copyright notice, with an expired copyright term, or produced by the US federal government, among others, is public domain, i.e. has no copyright.

2009-02-14 16:07:06 補充：
Some such as photos and scans of 2-dimensional objects and other "slavish reproductions", short text phrases, typographic logos, and product designs, do not have a sufficient degree of creativity apart from their functional aspects to have a copyright.

2009-02-14 16:07:38 補充：
Copyright law only governs creative expressions that are "fixed in a tangible medium of expression," not the ideas or information behind the works.

2009-02-14 16:07:41 補充：
It is legal to reformulate ideas based on written texts, or create images or recordings inspired by others, as long as there is no copying (see plagiarism for how much reformulation is necessary).

2009-02-14 16:08:02 補充：
If material does have a copyright, it may only be copied or distributed under a license (permission) from the copyright holder, or under the doctrine of fair use.

2009-02-14 16:08:05 補充：
If there is a valid license, the user must stay within the scope of the license (which may include limitations on amount of use, geographic or business territory, time period, nature of use, etc.).

2009-02-14 16:08:32 補充：
Fair use, by contrast, is a limited right to use copyrighted works without permission, highly dependent on the specific circumstances of the work and the use in question.

2009-02-14 16:08:35 補充：
It is a doctrine incorporated as a clause in United States copyright code, arising out of a concern that strict application of copyright law would limit criticism, commentary, scholarship, and other important free speech rights.

2009-02-14 16:08:51 補充：
A comparable concept of fair dealing exists in some other countries, where standards may vary.

Any materials that were published in other nations, and which are copyrighted under the laws of that nation, should be considered to be copyrighted in the United States under the URAA.