Copyright Law Blog

When Copying From the Internet Violates Copyright

July 15th, 2009 at 06:41am Under copyright protection

The concept of copyright is one that has given rise to as many of the big legal battles of the last decade as any other. With the advent of the Internet as a major tool in people’s work, life and studying habits, the amount of intellectual property that is travelling around the information superhighway is quite simply stellar. It may just be that we have never before seen a time when the rules of copyright were regarded less by the general public – as songs, music videos, book excerpts, television shows and films are traded on the Internet with varying degrees of impunity. How likely a copyright infringer is to be shut down depends on a number of factors.
One such factor is the size and influence of the individual or organization that holds the copyright on a piece of work. If you redistribute a television show that has mass popularity by placing it on a website, the station who hold the rights to the show or the production house that made it can quickly apply for an injunction to prevent you from continuing to gain from what they perceive as their work. If, however, you were to place concert footage of a little known singer-songwriter online, there is little likelihood that legal action will be taken. Apart from the fact that it may be viewed as good publicity, the difficulty of compiling a lawsuit makes it often too difficult for a smaller commercial entity to get anything substantive done.
Likewise in the case where some musical groups decided to take on what they viewed as the negative impact of peer-to-peer downloading software. This practice entails one individual putting some musical tracks on a mirroring site to allow others to download it into their own collections. When done in bulk, it is probably the most profound example of simultaneous file transfer, and something that showcases one of the major reasons for people having the Internet. However, when popular download site Napster made a number of tracks by the band Metallica available for download, the rockers were quick to complain and take out an injunction demanding that Napster stop hosting Metallica songs for broadcast.
The argument is that, having heard and even downloaded the tracks into one’s own collection, you will not spend the money on purchasing any of them. This has been disputed, however, with many people leaving positive reviews and those whose opinions are taken seriously potentially influencing a number of people to go and spend money.
Copyright is different from trademarking in that a trademark protects specific words, short phrases and designs for use in commercial settings, whereas copyright protects the actual ideas and the work that goes into making them reality. While a trademark violation can interfere with a company’s marketing strategy, a copyright violation is different in that it interferes with an individual’s work. One is a matter of intellectual property, the other a case of identity theft. It is for these reasons among others that a “blog” post is always time- and date-stamped demonstrating when it was written, giving it its own form of copyright.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational and entertainment purposes only, and should not be construed as legal advice on any subject matter.

Copyright Procedures; Quick and Easy

July 11th, 2009 at 06:41am Under copyright protection

The digital age of cyber publishing and intellectual property raises many questions about copyrighting. If you have never published anything in your life, you still hold copyrights. If you do publish your work, how do you know your copyrights are in place? Copyrighting is not complicated or difficult, there is a quick and easy way to copyright any creative material you produce.

Copyright law in the United States is extremely generous toward the creators and owners of new works. Legal copyright protection is in effect immediately and automatically upon the creation of any “original work of authorship” that is “fixed in any tangible medium of expression.”

In other words, a copyright notice is not necessary for your work to comply with U.S. Copyright law. For example, when authors, webmasters, amateur writers or anyone else submit creative material of any kind for publishing, that creative material is automatically copyrighted. No copyright notice is necessary to be legally binding.

The laws are so generous in fact that the notes or scribbles you mindlessly make while speaking on the phone are considered copyrighted material, even if you wad it up and toss it in the trash at the end of the call. This does not mean that copyrighting should be taken lightly. There are significant legal advantages to using a copyright notice.

Copyrights can also be given away in part or in whole and must be agreed to in writing. The details of this are way beyond the scope of this writing. All authors and publishers have taken part in copyright agreements knowingly or unknowingly.

Quick and Easy Copyrighting:
The conventional copyright notice consists of 3 elements. The the word “copyright” or the copyright symbol, the year, and the name of the copyright owner.

Copyright © 2006 [Your Name or Company]

To comply with current copyright law and to copyright any computer generated creative materials follow this formula. First, add the copyright notice as described above to the end of the document. When you have finished editing, save your document as a file.

Finally, print the complete document with the title or file name and the current date. Set these to be printed in your printer settings or use the header and footer options of your text editor. Optionally you can simply type the title and date along with your copyright notice manually.

For example:Copyright © 2006 Lyle Cochran
Copyright Procedures, Quick and Easy, July, 19, 2006

The printed hard copy becomes your Master Document. This document should be protected at all cost as it is proof that you are the author of the created material.

Other medium:
If your creative material is on some fixed and tangible medium other than computer, your hand written signature and date is usually enough copyright protection until you can apply for copyright.

Summary:
I know that the procedure outlined here sounds too easy, but it is the procedure recommended by the U. S. Copyright Office. This short procedure is valid and will stand on its own in litigation. Remember that the original date is key and a hard copy adds considerable weight to ownership.

If you wish to make your copyright bullet proof, you can begin copyright procedures online at the United States Copyright Office. ( http://www.copyright.gov/ )

Quotes Resource: http://www.copyright.gov/