Copyright Infringement: How To Spot It And Fix It
Copyright infringement is the act of exercising, without permission or legal authority, one or more of the exclusive rights granted to the copyright owner under section 106 of the Copyright Act (Title 17 of the United States Code). These rights include the right to reproduce or distribute a copyrighted work. In the file sharing context, downloading or uploading substantial parts of a copyrighted work without authority constitutes an infringement.
The Internet has exacerbated copyright infringement by making it faster and easier to engage in unlawful copying and distribution. Infringement occurs when a party does not have permission from the copyright holder.
Copyright Infringement: How To Spot It And Fix It
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“Copyright Infringement: How To Spot It And Fix It” originally appeared in the New York Lawyer on 1/24/2007 (http://www.newyorklawyermagazine.com/blog/) and the author has granted permission for it to be reposted here on CopyrightLaw101.com by LexisNexis
Many people are making money off of artwork that is not theirs to sell. This article will show you how to spot them, and fix it.
Copyrights and trademarks are invaluable tools for preventing copyright infringement. When properly used, they can help artists protect their work from being stolen.
The Fair Use law allows for two main things: education and parody. The problem with this is, however, that many people who claim to be using it are really stealing the artwork. If you find your artwork has been stolen, there are some steps you can take to get it back, and sometimes even earn a little cash in the process!
TIP 1: How to spot someone stealing your artwork
If your work is popping up on someone else’s website without your permission, then that person is committing copyright infringement. First off, make sure that the work you’re looking at is even a piece of yours! Sometimes people use random images as placeholders while they’re working on their own projects. So if you’re not sure whether or not the image is yours, try searching for the image on Google Images or Flickr. If it doesn’t come up there either, then it might be yours and you should follow these instructions at once!
Look at the website’s code to see
Copyright infringement occurs when someone uses copyrighted material in a manner that violates the copyright of the original owner. This can occur when an individual makes money from art, publications, music and other materials that are copyrighted by another person or company.
Most people who infringe on copyright laws do so without realizing it. However, there are many red flags that you can look for if you want to avoid accidentally breaking the law when using other people’s art or content.
TIP: It is always important to be aware of what is legal and what isn’t within the realm of copyright infringement. This article will cover some basic information to help you decide what you can use and what you need to stay away from. If you have questions or concerns about whether or not your work has been infringing on another person’s copyright, it is important to get legal advice before proceeding.
Classical Music
I’ll start with the classical music category. (I get a lot of questions about classical music.) It’s very hard to tell whether a recording is illegal to trade or not, because record labels have been known to release recordings that they claim are public domain, or have abandoned their rights, but which actually still have valid copyrights. Classical music is, according to my research, probably the worst category of all for getting sued, so if you’re going to do this, you want to make sure that you’re careful.
What can you do? If there is no information on the album about its legality (usually on the back cover), then I would go ahead and assume that it’s illegal. Label and recording company websites might give some information–but be aware that those sites are often inaccurate. The best place to look for this information is at the Library of Congress website and/or Wikipedia. Often they will note whether a recording is in the public domain or has an active copyright.
If you can’t find any information about an artist or album at all, I would probably avoid trading it. But if you’ve found information about one particular recording and cannot find anything about others by the same artist or on that label, then I would probably go
Most artists who have sold their art on the internet have had their art copied and sold by scalpers, who then sell their art to unsuspecting people. The problem increases when you are selling high priced art.
It is not a matter of if your art will be copied and sold as a forgery but when it will happen. It could be today or in the future when you least expect it.
The good news is that you can do something about this illegal activity and prevent it from happening to your art. You can protect your rights to your art and prevent copyright infringement from occurring by understanding how it happens. You need to know the warning signs of copyright infringement so that you can try to prevent it from happening in the first place.
The question is not if you are going to infringe, but when and how. Even if you never pirate a single song or movie in your life, the reality is that there are plenty of people out there who will download your content and share it with their friends without your permission. It’s important to realize that this is not an ethical issue; it’s about protecting yourself from losing money because someone else chose to break the law.
Trying to stop piracy by suing individual downloaders or sending out nasty letters threatening legal action gets nowhere. Is it possible? Yes. And in fact, we have seen that approach work well for some of our customers. But we have also seen cases where it backfired completely—where users became so angry at being accused of something they didn’t do that they posted the letter online, encouraging everyone else to go ahead and download content illegally and see what happens.
The right way to handle piracy is not with lawsuits or threats, but with technology. In most cases all you need is a piece of code on your website that detects illegal downloading and stops it automatically – before any damage can be done.*
*See footnote [5] for more information on how to do this.”
