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.
http://demo2.lunaticstudios.com/best-wordpress-plugins-every-wordpress-blogger-should-be-using-on-there-blogs/;Wordpress Plugins
By Copyright Law
July 15th, 2009 at 12:36am
Under copyright act
When you have finished a piece of work there is always a sense of achievement. You sit back and look over it and think “this is as good as it can be, and I have worked at it until it is finished”. But in some ways, finishing the work is only the beginning of the end because if you want the piece to be watertight you need to make sure that it is identifiable as being your work. The crime of plagiarism is worryingly prevalent – one has only to look at the world of music to see examples of bands having a huge hit that turns out to have been ripped off from a less well-known act who never really got the attention their hard work deserved.To avoid falling victim to plagiarism it is often necessary to register your work for copyright. The “blogosphere” – a world where people from all over the world can put their writing in the public sphere for reaction, credit and criticism – has its own way of copyrighting work via “time stamping”. A blog “client” – generally the medium through which you put your writing into a domain – will put a date and time on the work, so that if someone decides that your writing is so good that they want it for themselves, they can easily be identified as having stolen it.Other fields of work are less automatic in terms of avoiding plagiarism, however. An author who finishes a book will be well advised to send it for copyrighting before submitting it for publication, as there have been unsavory stories of publishing houses liking people’s work so much that they decide to send them a rejection letter but keep their work and amend it, publishing it under a different name. Anyone who has fallen victim to the act of plagiarism without having recourse to a method of proving this will be able to confirm that there are few things more frustrating and galling than being ripped off and not being able to prove it.The reason that it is important to register for copyright even if you have largely incontrovertible proof of the originality of your work is that it gives you rights under the law to bring a case in a civil lawsuit. This is important in terms of claiming damages and protecting the legal integrity of your work. It will also enable you to claim your legal fees if any are accrued in the course of pursuing your case. As time goes on, the more successful you become in your chosen field, you will not have to register the work yourself, as the publisher will do it for you. But early on, it is important to make sure you are doing everything you can to protect yourself, as no-one is going to go to the bother of doing it for you.Disclaimer: This article is for informational and entertainment purposes only, and should not be construed as legal advice on any subject matter.
By Copyright Law
July 14th, 2009 at 06:35pm
Under copyright act
Copyright infringement is a hot button issue for anyone whose work might be termed “intellectual property.” Working within the creative sphere, anyone who finishes a piece of work and can be said to have “created” it, will justifiably have reason to complain if someone then takes all or part of their work and passes it off as their own. The act of copyright violation is also known as “piracy” – a term that was notably used in 1703 when the legendary writer Daniel Defoe said of one of his novels that it was being printed “again and again, by Pyrates.” It is felt by some, however, that to use such a term for copyright infringement unjustifiably puts it on a par with greater crimes committed at sea. The crime of copyright infringement is, however, seen as a deeply unfair act, as it allows the person carrying it out to profit financially from doing very little in the way of hard work. It has become almost inevitable when watching a DVD or other form of recorded visual media that you will first have to sit through a short advertisement warning you of the illegality of “piracy”. Although these advertisements often paint copyright infringement as being on a par with crimes such as mugging and grand theft auto, they seem to have done little to halt the spread of such activity. It has become common practice for people in possession of a “screener” – a preview DVD copy of a film which is still under cinema release – to store the movie to their hard drive and place it on the Internet for viewing by more people. Although this is, in practice, illegal the fact remains that the relevant laws are hard to enforce and the practice continues due to the technical literacy of the people streaming the film online. Under the laws regarding fair use, it is often possible to defend such activity by showing that it is not for profit. The penalties for copyright infringement will depend on the extent of the operation. If someone can be shown to have profited from the illegal distribution of pirated material, then they may very well face a jail term. The length of this jail term will depend on various factors, not least the extent of the profit made. It also throws into question the reasons for an individual to commit piracy. If it is for personal profit, although the offender may well face jail time, this will be greatly reduced as compared with piracy to fund other illegal operations. In more than one jurisdiction it has been shown that the sale of bootleg DVDs, CDs and other media have been used to fund terrorist activity. This naturally is viewed much more dimly than if the sale was purely for commercial reasons. Cases brought in this situation will always result in a lengthy spell in jail for the offender, as it is viewed as a much more serious crime. Disclaimer: This article is for informational and entertainment purposes only, and should not be construed as legal advice on any subject matter.
LegalBuffet.com is a complete online resource that compares the legal services offered by various online companies. Find the best company for your <a href="
http://legalbuffet.com/copyright-services/” rel=”nofollow”>copyright search needs at
http://legalbuffet.com/copyright-services /.
http://demo2.lunaticstudios.com/best-wordpress-plugins-every-wordpress-blogger-should-be-using-on-there-blogs/;Wordpress Plugins
By Copyright Law
July 13th, 2009 at 12:40pm
Under copyright protection
Getting copyright for your own original work is something that is advised under the law, particularly if there is something about your work that makes it likely to be either copied or used for any purpose against your will. Being the creator of a piece of work is something that can provide both financial riches and personal kudos. If, however, you have not copyrighted this work, you will have problems trying to prove ownership further down the line.Of course, copyrighting your work will cost money. This is all very well and good if you are a successful artist who has been selling their pieces for some time and has the money in the bank to pay copyright fees. The expense is not huge â especially when compared with some other legal services â but it still brings into the matter a question of whether copyright law discriminates against poor, struggling artists. If you happen to have an idea that you imagine may well be lucrative, but not the money to copyright it, then you may feel that you are being unfairly prevented from protecting your idea.One solution that has been mooted in this situation is the practice known as “Poor Manâs Copyright”. As the name suggests, it is a way of demonstrating that one has taken action to protect their idea, and doing so without having to spend a large amount of money when one cannot reasonably afford to. The practice itself is fairly straightforward and simple, and based in some genuinely clever thinking. The idea is that if you take a copy of the work and send it to yourself through the mail, there will be a date postmarked on the envelope showing when it was sent. If someone then tries to copy your work or pass a version of it off as their own you have a way of showing that you had the idea first and took steps to protect it.The fact is, however, that Poor Manâs Copyright is not legally binding. No provision is made in US copyright law regarding such protection, so people responsible for original work are still required to put it through the process of applying for copyright if they want total, full copyright protection. This is not an advantageous situation for anyone who has an idea while down on their luck financially. However, it is still worth going through the process of sending the work to yourself. It can be used as evidence where there is reasonable doubt, and more importantly it can be a way of providing notice to any potential plagiarist that you are mindful of people trying to steal your ideas. In any potential case where you may sue for plagiarism, it is always desirable to be as fully armed as possible for any legal battle. After all, it is potentially a question of substantial, repeated future earnings and you want to put your foot down to protect those.Disclaimer: This article is for informational and entertainment purposes only, and should not be construed as legal advice on any subject matter.
By Copyright Law
July 12th, 2009 at 06:41am
Under copyright protection
In the United States, copyright law protects creators from having their works stolen or used without their permission. In the event that a work registered with the U.S. Copyright Office is stolen or infringed upon, the creator can pursue legal action. To ensure that your work is fully protected, you must have at least a basic understanding of copyright and how it applies to you and your work.
Copyright is the protection afforded to all creators of published and unpublished work, including the authors of artistic, dramatic, literary, and musical works. In addition, when you register your work with the U.S. Copyright Office, your copyright is protected both in the United States and in those countries that have a copyright protection agreement with the U.S.
Copyright allows you total control over your work: With exclusive copyright, you can reproduce your work; distribute and sell your creation; publicly perform the work; and publicly display your work.
According to U.S. law, copyright is immediately established the moment a work is created. For example, if you write a book, you legally hold exclusive copyrights to that book, unless you wrote the book on a work-for-hire basis in which you agreed to transfer all copyrights to another individual or business.
Transferring all copyrights is a common practice today, but the transfer is only valid if there is a written agreement that is signed by the original author or a legal representative acting on his behalf. However, if you’re giving another individual nonexclusive rights to a work, you do not need a written agreement for it to be valid.
For all works created after January 1, 1978, works are automatically protected by copyright law from the moment of creation until 70 years after the author’s death. Those works that are created on a work-for-hire basis or that are created by an anonymous author or an author with a pseudonym are protected (unless the author’s name appears in records of the U.S. Copyright Office) for a period of 95 years from the work’s publication or for a period of 120 years from the date of its creation, whichever proves to be shorter.
Because not all works are eligible for protection under copyright law, it’s important that you know what types of works are protected: Those works that are protected by. copyright law include: literary, musical, dramatic, pictorial, graphic, sculptural, architectural, choreographic, and audiovisual works as well as sound recordings, motion pictures, and pantomimes.
There are numerous benefits to registering an eligible work with the U.S. Copyright Office. In addition to receiving a certificate of registration, your copyright will automatically become a part of public record. Additionally, should someone use your work without your permission, you can file suit against that individual and may be entitled to both statutory damages and attorney’s fees.
Registering for a copyright with the U.S. Copyright Office is a fairly straightforward process. In addition to filling out an application form, you must pay an application fee and provide a copy, or a nonrefundable deposit, of your work to the Copyright Office. Failing to send all of the materials together in the same package will likely result in having your package sent back to you.
http://lunaticstudios.com/software/;Free WP Autoposter Plugins
By Copyright Law