Copyright Infringement Essay

The use of images, videos, and music in content without receiving permission or providing appropriate citation is also considered plagiarism. These activities include copying images from websites and pasting them in papers or websites, making videos while using copyrighted music as part of the sound track, and performing a cover of another person’s music. Other instances of plagiarism include photographs or scanned images of book covers to display on websites,

violators. So although some form of a copyright law is needed, the one we have

One of the most common, yet controversial, issues of First Amendment law is the subject of copyright and infringement. Although the subject may not seem major at first, many different issues and controversies have risen and become more common than ever over the years. The issues that have become pertinent to this subject are endless, including trademark infringement, piracy, theft, fraud, plagiarism, and many more. With the coming of age and advancement of technology, these cases have become more common and appear more often than ever before. Government officials have always been strict about copyright rulings, and have tried to deliver fair and just rulings for both parties involved under First Amendment rules. Because the owner’s work and material is protected under the First Amendment, it gets tricky when involving another party that can claim the same work of art. In short, the definition of copyright has always been cut and dry: allowing owners of creative works the right to control and profit from their creations. It is basically recognized as a form of property ownership.

Copyright is any expression recorded in any physical form, published or unpublished in any medium whether it is music, books, artworks or newspaper articles. Federal publications, facts and ideas are not copyrighted (www.honolulu.hawaii.edu). The very first copyright law that was established was known as the Statute of Anne, which was authorized in England in 1710 (history of copyright, 2005). The newly founded constitution allowed secure rights to its creators. An act very similar to the Statute of Anne was passed by congress in 1790 as the first American copyright law (history of copyright, 2005). As more and more books were produced and were becoming more accessible domestically and internationally in Europe and North America, it became

Copyright is the legal right, to an inventor to perform, print, publish, film, or record artistic, literary, or musical material, and to allow others to do the same. Copyright law was developed to provide the creators and inventors of any works with powerful and effective rights of exclusivity over their creations (Patterson & Lindberg, 1991). Over the past, these rights were almost unlimited. People would use existing developments as if they were their own without any regard of the creator’s exclusive rights. The need to balance and limit such rights arose, and governments established these limits for the general good of the public.

The purpose of the copyright system has always been to promote creativity in society and protect the creators’ interests. In applying copyright laws to any creation, three basic guidelines apply. First is the fair return for a creators labor, second is “Fair Use” of the creators’ labor and finally the Progress of Science and useful Arts to further the public good. The application of these three guidelines in litigation for A&M Records, Inc. v. Napster, found that the rights of reproduction, and distribution had been violated, in effect upholding the copyrights of nineteen different music companies represented under A&M Records name, this ruling had protected the music industries interests. However it would seem that the publishing industry would not be so lucky, litigation in Authors’ Guild vs. Google ruled that Google’s actions constituted fair use. Under these two scenarios’ the copyright laws’ have, effectively, protected the rights of music artists’, protected the public’s right to “fair use” and sparked new opportunities for creative growth. However, lawmakers continue to struggle to define copyright boundaries between the public’s right of use and the creators right to profit from their efforts.

1: A copyright is a form of protection given to authors or creators of “original works of authorship” including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic and other intellectual works.

Using works that are protected by copyright law and infringing the right of the copyright holder.

Copyright Infringement is the infringement of the exclusive rights of an author by the unauthorized use of their work:

Music piracy is the large-scale, unauthorized duplication of recorded music with the intent to defraud the copyright holder of his/her royalties (English).

To prove improper appropriation, the author must demonstrate that the allegedly infringing work is substantially similar to the author’s original work, as far as copyrightable elements. There is no uniform substantiality test; however, the ninth circuit has agreed on applying an extrinsic/intrinsic test.

pirated copyright goods shall mean any goods which are copies made without the consent of the right holder or person duly authorised by the right holder in the country of production and which are made directly or indirectly from an article where the making of that copy would have constituted an infringement of a copyright or a related right under the law of the country of importation ().

Under the current copyright laws in the United States, original creative works are automatically afforded copyright protection — there is no need to register or document anything. Through the years, copyright holders have always wanted more legal protection, while copyright users requested more lenient use (Frankel, 2010). However tightened and increased copyright protections, such as those found in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), have always been framed as an easy and ethical way to increase the revenue for copyright holders by insuring that they are properly compensated for all use. So as the years have progressed, the U.S. copyright laws have gotten progressively more complicated and harder for the average person to understand.

The enduring fascination for people is that they want law to be flexible in the matter of copyright. This was clearly expressed by Ed Mayo, Chief Executive of Consumer Focus quoting "UK copyright law is the oldest, but also the most out of date. Before addressing the question it’s important to look at the history and definition of UK Copyright law. It has grown from this beginning to form the main legal basis for the international publishing industry, which contributes so much to literature, learning and culture not only in the UK but it has crossed different nation’s borders.

According to the Motion Pictures Association of America website, A pirate is anyone who sells, acquires, copies or distributes copyrighted materials without permission. Over the past ten years, technology has greatly advanced, and with these technological advances, digital file sharing easier than ever. One aspect of these advances is faster Internet connection, which has made it easier to download large files in the matter of minutes. Whereas in the past majority of people had dial-up Internet services which in most cases the download rate was no more than 10 kilobytes per second. Some Internet providers today offer speeds up to one gigabyte per second, which to put in perspective; a DVD size is usually around 4 gigabytes, so technically someone could download an exact replica of a DVD in a matter of minutes if not seconds.