Copyright Questions
What happens if someone is guilty of copyright infringement?
First, the courts could order the infringement to stop, confiscate infringing materials, order the infringer to give profits to the copyright holder, order the infringer to pay damages the copyright holder may have suffered from the infringement, or order the infringer to pay statutory damages. For each case of copyright infringement, the infringer can be fined from $750 to $30,000. If the infringement was willful infringement (the person knew they were infringing and did it anyway), then the fine can go up to $150,000 for each act of infringement. The courts can also decrease the amount awarded in cases where the person did not believe that they were infringing, and in some cases damages can be dismissed altogether (such as if the person worked for a nonprofit educational institution or library and believed that their copying was fair use, which we'll talk about soon).
How long does copyright last?
Remember that copyright law, according to the Constitution, lasts for "limited times." How long are those limited times? Well, that time period has changed as copyright law has been amended. So, the length of time a particular work is protected by copyright depends on a number of factors. When was the work created? If created before automatic protection, was it renewed? If it was created before the US joined the Berne Convention, did it have a copyright symbol? It's become so complicated, that the best way to determine is probably by referencing a chart. Here's a good source from the University of North Carolina:
When Works Pass into the Public Domain
Copyright Term and the Public Domain
Current copyright lasts for the life of the author plus 70 years, or in the case of a "work for hire" (see below) 120 years past the date of creation or 95 years past the date of publication, whichever is sooner.
Who owns copyright?
Another occasionally confusing subject. ^_^ The ownership of copyright can also depend on some factors. Was it a "work for hire" (was it part of your job)? If you did your creation as part of your regular employment, then it's very possible that your employer owns the copyright. Did more than one author contribute to the work? Then you may have a situation of joint copyright ownership. It can get fairly complex. Let's take this course, INF 312, for example.
Most of our web pages, with the exception of the final modules, used to say © INF 312. That didn't work, because only people or legal entities can own copyright. INF 312 is not a legal entity. Legal entities are things like corporations or associations- groups that have the legal status that people do. The University of Texas is a legal entity, as is the School of Information. Now we say © School of Information.
What does that mean? Well, different people wrote different parts of the course. Someone designed and created the website, someone wrote code for the website, one or more instructor wrote each module, and someone updates each module. To complicate things, the people who fill these roles may change from semester to semester. So there are lots of people who own copyright in different parts of the course. These people own the copyright to the parts they created. However, the course as a whole is owned by the School of Information. The School of Information owns the compilation even though the individual people still own the parts that they contributed.
This means that the people can use the parts they created however they want- but they can't use the whole course however they want without the permission from an authorized representative from the School of information. Other examples of compliations are "best short stories" books or those compilations CDs you can find at stores. Selecting the short stories, or selecting the songs, or selecting the materials for the course are enough to give copyright protection to the compilation in most cases.
To further complicate things for this particular course, past works have been contributed by staff employees in the course of their employment (ie, work for hire), so those parts of the course could be owned by the University of Texas, as well.
In most cases, students own the work that they write in the course of school. That being said, I've been told by UT legal counsel that students can be required to sign over copyright to their work for certain uses. Student ownership of work is one of the reasons that some uses of student work—say, for use for plagiarism detection for turnitin.com—can be complicated (and is one of the reasons we don't use a service like that, although we use our own tools).
How do people sign away copyright? Well, people can use contracts or licensing to give away, sell, or license some or all of their rights to their works. The rights in copyright law are divisible, so you could, for example, allow a publisher to publish your works in print, but keep all other rights (such as digital publishing) for yourself. Or you could allow someone the right to copy your material for education purposes but restrict commercial use, etc. Artists often sign away some or all rights to their works to their publishers. Because of this, in many cases the creator of the work is not necessarily the copyright holder.
What does "Licensed for Home Use Only" mean?
Usually, when you see that sign on a video or elsewhere, it means that the copyright holder allows uses of that material at home (like showing a movie) without needing to ask permission. Public performances or other uses may infringe on the copyright holder's copyright. However, just because something is "licensed for home use only" does not mean that other uses are necessarily infringing. There are some important exceptions to an author's exclusive rights.
Matters of Contention
Some people argue that "limited times" aren't really limited if Congress can keep on extending the length of copyright indefinitely. That was one of the arguments in Eldred Vs. Ashcroft , which was argued before the Supreme Court. The argument lost. See Lawrence Lessig's How I Lost the Big One.
Cases of Note
In 1970, a group called Creedence Clearwater Revival released a song called "Run Through the Jungle." It was written by a member of the group, John Fogerty, and the copyright was owned by Fantasy Records. In 1984 Fogerty, then signed with Time Warner records, released a hit song called "Old Man Down the Road." Fantasy Records believed that the newer song infringed on "Run Through the Jungle," and sued Fogerty for infringing on his own song. Although Fogerty won the case, he ended up spending a great deal of money on the defense.
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