Copyright Infringement Cases Can Teach Us to Obey Copyright Laws
As a forward, however, you'll need to know something about copyright law. Most copyright lawsuits are brought to the courts because a copyright owner has found their copyright is being used outside the copyright laws. This usually means the copyright holder hadn't been asked for permission to use the work; or if they had, the work is not being used in an agreed-upon context or they have not been paid royalties. The copyright infringement cases, listed below, sample of what goes to the Supreme Court in copyright infringement.
Feist Publications v. Rural Telephone Service Co (6th Cir. 1996)
This copyright infringement case was brought to the Supreme Court in 1996 regarding the copyright of a database. The Supreme Court, in this instance, decided that compilations of data (such as in a database) are only protected by copyright when they are "arranged and selected in an original manner." Although the level of originality needed to make the database copyright-able is not very high, the pages of a directory (such as a phone book) are not protected because the data contained therein is arranged geographically, then alphabetically. Because of this, the data was not original enough to warrant a copyright infringement charge. The competing telephone company was allowed to tap into their competitors' database and use that data in their own work without liability.
Princeton University Press v. Michigan Document Services, Inc (6th Cir 1996)
This case has to do with the Fair Use law, which is defined in the Copyright Act of 1976, 17 U.S.C. § 107. In this case, a photocopying service was sued for copyright infringement for making "course packs" for the University of Michigan. In this case, a course pack was a group of reading materials assigned by a professor -- then the course pack was bound together by a professional copy shop.
In the Fair Use system, there is a system available for payment of copyright fees to publishers whose works are used in course materials. The printing shop owner refused to pay the copyright cost. When it went to the Supreme Court, they analyzed the Fair Use code and found that it was NOT Fair Use, and the printing shop had to pay the copyright costs.
As you can see, copyright infringement cases are cases in which someone violates the rights of a copyright owner, as provided by 17 USC §106, or of the author as provided in §106A. These copyright infringement cases can be taken to either criminal or civil court, and can carry with it a hefty fine.
Copyright infringement cases are brought upon people who violate copyrights every day. In recent times, you'll find many copyright cases in relation to electronic copyrights -- such as those you'd find on a website or PDF file, as well as other digital media such as music and audio files.
It's probable that you've seen copyright cases brought against the common person -- such as a child or family -- for downloading digital music in the form of MP3s. In the current Internet age, it's not surprising to see so many music and video copyright cases brought to us because of peer to peer file sharing made possible by the Internet. You can be certain that until people know the rules of copyright, and downloading copyrighted material from the Internet, we'll see many more copyright cases.
To learn more about copyright infringement, visit my website on Copyright Law and download my free e-book, "Copyright Basics."
Published by Richard Cunningham
Richard Cunningam is a professional freelance journalist. View profile
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11 Comments
Post a CommentHey gizmo, sorry it took so long to get back, but the answer to your question is "no" I don't make an illegal income. Maybe you do own a copyright but resorting to 'argumentum ad hominen" or name calling, shows your true character. By the way I in no way have suggested that creators not get paid, in fact I believe they will make more money without the government getting involved.
Hey vanhellslinger
Evidently you don't earn a living in a legit way. I personal don't want scum stealing my hard work and making a profit off it. So saying the DVD pirate is a hero makes you a scumbag just like him. Thank god for laws that protect the individual or company that works for their money.
how come that their are people who copy a certain idea that cause copyright infringement even though we all know that we have different idea or perception?
God Bless the DVD pirate. He is a hero in the battle against the communist copyright Hollywood regime, a conglomerate of unions, guilds, and associations that control what and when we see movies. You people that believe because Hollywood epitomizes financial success they represent free enterprise, but China is one of the richest nations in the world and it’s 100% communist. True free enterprise would not include the government endorsing and protecting monopolies. The system of copyright has it’s roots in slavery, tyranny, and oppression, reading and writing was restricted to royalty, the wealthy and the church. Look at the current court battles between the people mapping the DNA of the human body, if it was a thousand years ago we would be talking about those who first dissected and mapped the bones of the body. Could you imagine looking at an anatomy book and see the bones missing because the publisher didn’t pay off the copyright holder of the femur bone?
Communist govern
God Bless the DVD pirate. He is a hero in the battle against the communist copyright Hollywood regime, a conglomerate of unions, guilds, and associations that control what and when we see movies. You people that believe because Hollywood epitomizes financial success they represent free enterprise, but China is one of the richest nations in the world and it’s 100% communist. True free enterprise would not include the government endorsing and protecting monopolies. The system of copyright has it’s roots in slavery, tyranny, and oppression, reading and writing was restricted to royalty, the wealthy and the church. Look at the current court battles between the people mapping the DNA of the human body, if it was a thousand years ago we would be talking about those who first dissected and mapped the bones of the body. Could you imagine looking at an anatomy book and see the bones missing because the publisher didn’t pay off the copyright holder of the femur bone?
Communist govern
John Oswald and Copyright Math 3-20-10
"If creativity is a field then copyright is a fence" John Oswald
It looks like Oswald never clarified his quote. There is a very simple mathematical example for his saying. That would be, copyright equals exponential decay times some astronomical power.
© = ED×∞(infinite)(power) or infinite © will create more permutations than could be measured. The link being any and every work of art has permutations that will always exceed the number of units found in the original work. A unit of expression could be simply understood by using musical notes. If 100 notes are used to create a melody then the permutations of the 100 could potentially exceed millions. So, the permutations of any work, is always the dominant factor. P>Original work, yet P is by the existence of copyright laws sterile, unusable, and dead before birth, copyright has aborted the permutations wi
i also agree, i would kick bon jovi in the balls
How come the people that provide sites with access to copyrighted movies and other things dont go down. Only the people that download from them.
You got to be kidding. Under the letter of the law, every bar, restaurant, vcr owner, Tivo owner, etc. is subject to many $150,000.00 fines every day.
Check out his website. It has an interesting copyright infringement case against a major film studio.
http://www.scribd.com/tag/copyright