August 3rd, 2009 at 12:39am
Under copyright infringement
You’ve just gotten married, and are traveling the world with your new spouse on your honeymoon. A good friend who filmed the wedding and reception has just finished putting together the footage. He has posted it on YouTube so you both can relive your wedding day on your honeymoon.
The video is wonderful. It illuminates several moments you’d missed in the excitement of the day. Your friend has even included your song, Endless Love, as the background music for the video.
After the honeymoon, as you unpack the doorbell rings. Opening the door you find a man asking for your signature for a package. You think, “Which aunt or uncle must be sending money”? When the deliveryman smiles, hands you the package and says, “You’ve been served.” you are surprise and horrified.
Confused, you tear the package open to find a lawsuit for $10,000 for copyright infringement. You wonder to yourself–could this be right? How did I infringe any copyrights? Out of curiosity you scan the pages of the lawsuit for a logical explanation. Then you find it: “the illegal use of Endless Love by Lionel Ritchie and Diana Ross in your wedding video posted on YouTube”.
With all the attention YouTube has gotten from the Viacom lawsuit for $1 billion for unauthorized distribution and infringe of copyright laws, everyone has overlooked a possible next wave of lawsuits to come. Those are for the vast majority of online videos that are made by small home videographers who have included music in their videos that has not been licensed for use.
Typically music publishers and record labels have turned a blind eye to home and wedding videographers who produce their own work. Shared with an audience of usually less then 10 close personal friends and family, these home videographers have all but been ignored for years. This was before sites like You Tube, Google Video, ChickShack, AsSeenInVT and a handful of others began creating an outlet for anyone with a video camera. Now home videographers need to be warned. You may soon find yourself involved in lawsuits for illegal use of a copyrighted protected musical recording, the fines for which could be in excess of $15,000 per song.Remember how fiercely the recording industry went after everyone from children to old ladies who downloaded songs from sites like Napster? It may be only a matter of time until they start going after videographers in the same manner.
Most home videographers are unaware of the limitations on using copyright protected music. The vast number of home Videographers wrongly assume that they can synchronize or place any music they want in their video production. In the past, a small home and wedding Videographer would usually get away with this. The problem is these wannabee Quentin Tarantino’s have now begun distributing their productions to more then just a few friends and family. A video loaded online has the potential market of hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of viewers, and if you’ve created something popular using YouTube, you may be the next victim.
Local TV stations in America can pay tens of thousands of dollars for licensing music for their stations. This price can go into the millions if they desire to use popular artists songs.
For Videographers who have uploaded productions onto sites like YouTube and are now nervous, let me educate you a bit on how licensing works.
Simply put, copyright laws state that any music under copyright protection may not be used for any kind of video production, media presentation, websites, etc–that is, without approval from the copyright owner. Several types of licenses are usually required. These may include some or all of the following: Synchronization, Performance and Master licenses.
Now before you stress over the fact that no one will see your masterpiece or that big the bad RIAA is coming to get you — there is a solution. First, you must remove the copyrighted music you have in your videos. Then you have the option to either write your own music for your video (most of us are not musically creative enough to go this route); or license music from an Online Production Music Library.
Online Production Music Libraries typically lease music from their catalogs on either an individual per use basis, called a drop, or blanket licenses that will cover an entire project. The advantages of online production music libraries are the scope, depth and breadth of the catalogs. Pricing ranges greatly, depending on many variables.
Most production libraries do not create music specifically for amateur videographers, but Recently, an L.A. based production music library called TunEdge Music announced it would give special licensing for web distribution. TunEdge Music is providing access to their online catalog and for a reasonable fee their music can be licensed specifically for online creations.
This article was coauthored by Mike Bradbury and Joel Thatcher. Joel is a senior employee of Tunedge Production Music. Tunedge provides
production music solutions for professionals and amateurs alike through an online interface. Mike is an analyst for Objectware, Inc, an
Atlanta web design company.
http://www.producertoday.com;Music Producers
By Copyright Law
July 24th, 2009 at 12:42pm
Under trademark law
A decade or so ago there was no such thing as computer law. This niche of the legal system has come into being out of necessity with the proliferation of the Internet and the issues that come along with the technology that makes worldwide communication and transactions possible.
Traditional law does not cover many of the issues that occur in the online realm. Therefore it is crucial that we have a particular branch of law that exists to deal with legal problems that may arise by the very nature of the Internet and are not able to be covered by local jurisdictions.
There may be disagreements over copyright or ownership of a domain or website which cannot be resolved due to the parties being in different states or even different countries. The problem that arises here is that there are complex problems in deciding what state or country’s law and jurisdiction will have the authority to resolve the issue. In situations like this the area of law known as “Conflicts of Law” comes into play.
The increasingly complex area of computer law is exceedingly demanding in its educational requirements for attorneys who practice in this niche. The term “computer law” is kind of a misnomer since it is really the information on the computer such as software, personal info, and possible trade secrets that are the issue as well as the possibility of international disputes over domain names and copyright violations. For these reasons, those who practice computer law are usually the same attorneys who specialize in Intellectual Property Law, also known as IP Law, which covers trademarks, patents, copyrights, and trade secrets. The U.S. Patent Office requires attorneys practicing before it to hold a bachelor’s degree in the areas of engineering or science at the very least.
Some traditional areas of law are evolving to include ever-changing computer laws. Early on it was declared that software would be classified as “goods”, but the difference between normal goods and software “goods” is that one only owns the media that the software is stored on and a license to the use of the software which is now covered under the Uniform Commercial Code.
Those who hack into computer systems without authorization and use that computer’s resources or steal information from it are guilty of pretty much the same thing as what traditional law would call burglary. However, since by definition burglary means entering an actual physical residence, specific laws were added to cover this offense.
One of the biggest problems with the Internet and one that grows even larger annually is that of copyright theft and piracy. Anyone with a computer and access to the Internet can easily steal the intellectual property of another. Additionally, the piracy of media such as movies and music is an enormous problem that is plaguing those industries today. It is a fact that the area of computer law will continue to expand and be used more in the future as the use of the Internet to commit crimes continues to grow.
By Copyright Law
July 21st, 2009 at 12:42pm
Under copyright law
CHRONOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS IN CYBERSPACE LAW
BY
S J TUBRAZY
Law and organized social living are integral parts of each other; modern human life is complex one but organized as well. How much modern life is being organized it is becoming more protégé of electronic and digital gear and internet.
Internet is the most advanced electronic communication system. Its role and function are being developed as inevitable part of life of man of this age. The legal developments in the history of internet are in initial stage we may trace the footsteps of legal development which has opted nationally and internationally.
UNCITRAL was established by UN in 1966 and it is stand for United Nation Commission on international Trade Law. Its basic purposes among various others to promote and adoption of new international conventions, model laws (a model law is a legislative text that is recommended to states for enactment as part of their national law) and uniform laws for international trade laws. The models laws which have been adopted by UNCITRAL in relating to the electronic commerce and electronic signatures were as underneath;
1. Model law on Electronic Commerce 1996.
2. Model law on Electronic Signature 1998- 2001.
These model laws played a fundamental role for preliminary enactment of electronic laws in various countries.
Wipo Copy Right Rules 1996 and Wipo Performance and Phonograms Treaty Rules 1996 are regulating the copy right infringements and trade mark issues at nationally and internationally. The ICANN Uniform Domain Name Disputes Resolution Policy 1998 a non-profit corporation that was created to supervise a number of Internet-related.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act 1998 (DMCA) is a United States copyright law that implements two 1996 treaties of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). It criminalizes production and dissemination of technology, devices, or services intended to circumvent measures that control access to copyrighted works and it also criminalizes the act of dodging an access control, whether or not there is actual infringement of copyright itself.
The European Union passed the EU Copyright Directive or EUCD 2001, which addresses several of the issues as to criminalize production and broadcasting of technology, devices, or services intended to circumvent measures that control access to copyright.
The Information Technology Act was enacted in the year 2000 with a view to give an impetus to the growth of electronic based transactions, to provide legal recognition for e-commerce and e-transactions, to facilitate e-governance, to prevent computer based crimes and ensure security practices and procedures in the context of widest possible use of information technology worldwide.
The Electronic Transaction Ordinance 2002 and Prevention of Electronic Crime Ordinance 2008 were enacted in Pakistan to provide legal recognition for e-commerce and e-transaction and to prevent computer based crimes in the contemporary digital age.
Evolution of legal process always run side by side the society move, problems and issues are always interrelated to all kinds of facilities that man adopts. The electronic age required to be recognized its uniform legal existence to resolve its issues coming forth. Model Laws and rules adopted by UNCITRAL are basis of all electronic laws and rules enacted and introduced at nations. World recognized uniform laws, rules and policies can only resolve the all electronic issues successfully.
(The Author is attorney of cyber laws in Pakistan)
He supposed to be a cyber laws expert here in Pakistan, He is practicing lawyer and have written two books recently and he did exhaustive commentary of prevention of electronic crimes ordinance 2007, he very often writes articles in national and international wide newspapers and forums, if someone just write s. j tubrazy in google search engine various results would be reached about his research works.
http://www.mystainedglasswindowfilm.com/house-window-tinting-cut-your-electricity-bill-by-up-to-20-percent/;house window tinting
By Copyright Law
July 17th, 2009 at 06:42pm
Under trademark law
So you have a hot idea for a website, or maybe you want to capitalize on a hot new product that has just been released. There are some things that you will want to know first before you get yourself in a lot of hot water.
Choosing a domain name isn’t really rocket science but it is very important. You want to choose something that is as short as possible, easy to pronounce and remember for marketing purposes, and if at all possible you want to get your main keywords in the domain name. All that aside, you also have to be careful that you don’t step on the toes of a person or company who may be inclined to sue you.
For example, judges have ruled against domain name squatters in every case where they registered a celebrity’s name. They will also rule against companies that infringe upon other companies. A good case in point would be the case a couple of years ago between the World Wrestling Federation and the World Wildlife Foundation. The World Wrestling Federation called itself the “WWF”, put up a website at wwf.com, and the World Wildlife Foundation filed a trademark infringement suit against them. The Wildlife Foundation won because they had been in existence for many years before the wrestling firm and therefore the World Wrestling Federation had to change its name to World Wrestling Entertainment. Obviously this cost them a great some of money to change their name that appeared on millions of marketing products all over the world as well as the expense they had put up on their website and online marketing.
Another more recent issue that is still ongoing is the battle between Apple and the V.O.I.P. product “iphone” from Cisco. Apple announced they would be bringing a product to market called the Apple iPhone to go along with their other products that start with an “I”. Cisco promptly filed for injunctive relief and as of this writing the issue is unresolved.
There are a few basic guidelines that will help keep you out of trouble when you are choosing a domain name so you don’t run into legal trouble from violating someone’s trademark. Let’s take a look at them.
First off you need to realize that a name that is used to identify a particular service or product is a recognized trademark. Trademarks that are deemed to be suggestive and memorable are granted protection by both state and federal law.
A confliction of trademarks occurs when one trademark is in conflict with another and the deployment of both is probably going to be confusing to customers or would be customers concerning the company’s products or services. As I illustrated above, when the legal issue is with a later user of a trademark, the law rules that the first commercial user of the trademark is the legal owner and is therefore given protection. The loser will be forced to cease using the trademark and may even be compelled to pay damages to the original owner, particularly if it is determined that they were malicious in their intent.
The smart thing to do is to consult a trademark lawyer and have them check out your idea for a domain name before you invest too much in developing and marketing it.
Gregg Hall is an author living in Navarre Beach, Florida. Find more about this as well as <a href="
http://www.focusonip.com ” rel=”nofollow”>intellectual property attorneys at
http://www.focusonip.comhttp://lunaticstudios.com/;Free WP Plugins
By Copyright Law