Copyright Infringement

Introduction

The dictionary definition of the word Copyright can be mentioned as the grant given to an individual or a group of individuals as a protection of his own work. This grants provides a right in such a way that no other person can reproduce, distribute or display the same work unless or until he had the permission from the person who had a copyright on that particular work. Even if someone violates the copyright and reproduces or distributes the work, then the person who owns copyright has all the freedom to file a case against the one who violates it. On the other hand the owner of the copyright has the chances of selling the rights to someone he on his own wish or can assign his works to some other independently. If in the court of law it was proved that the copyright was violated then the culprit needs to pay an amount which varies between 200 to 1,50,000 USD and also has to pay all the court fees. Finally it can be simply put as violating a copyright work or information is against the law and doing so might result in heavy pay of fines.

All the work that have to be copyright protected should be registered at the US copyright office. The work which is not protected can be reused or reproduced by any person with no restrictions. There will not be any kind of rules or restrictions on the work which are not copyright protected. The creative work of the owner should be protected with copyrights without being distributed and used by the others. In the real time scenario there were numerous cases registered against the violation of copyright and almost every case was solved which ended in paying of huge compensation to the actual owner who possess the copyright.

Present Scenario

 In the early phase of human life everything in the world belongs to every person in the world. Briefly, everyone has equal rights on the belongings of the world. Slowly the scenario changed and there emerged owners for the land or empires in the form of Kings who rule the kingdom. The king will be the ultimate power over the kingdom. And in the current digital world the ownership on the inventions, information, and creativity emerged. To safeguard all these the term copyright came into existence which literally provides right over a particular work only to an individual or a group of individuals. Violating these rules will finally ends in paying huge compensation to the owner.

Some of the examples on which work the copyrights can be provided are as follows:

Ø  Books and other writings

Ø  Lectures, sermons

Ø  Photographic works

Ø  Musical composition

Ø  Dramatic and cerographical works

Ø  Drawing, painting, architecture works

Ø  Illustration, maps sketches works

Rights Protected

The law states that the owner of the land has ultimate authority over that land and no other can make use without getting the permission from the owner. In the same way the owner of the copyright content provides the right to use only for the owner. There are two types of rights under the copyright. They are: 

1.    Economic Rights: This allows the owner to tries to expect financial benefits from the individual who make use of his copyright protected works.

2.    Moral Rights: This allows the owner to take particular steps to prevent the personal link between himself and work.

The rights of owner of a work can prohibit or authorize some kinds of works by some other individuals which are as follows:

Ø  The distribution of copies of the work

Ø  Publishing the work on the social media or any other forms

Ø  Its public performance

Ø  Reproduction or sharing the protected work

Duration of Copyright

The copyright do not stay for life long. The law provides a limited period of time for the copyright. The duration of the copyright starts straight away from the start or creation of the work. This continues till the death of the author. The purpose of this provision in the law is to enable the author's successors to benefit economically from exploitation of the work after the author's death. The duration of copyright provided for by national law is as a general rule the life of the author plus not less than 50 years after his death.

Copyright infringement in Cyberspace

In the digital world just two words make the entire functionality makes it simple to lift digitized information. In simple terms, Copy and Paste makes any work to be stolen without any prior permissions. It does not matter what kind of work it would be, whether some text, videos or photographs or some music information. It allows to copy the work form any if the existing website to any other destination.

The internet is the main source for the raise of many digital issues in terms of the copyright. Copyright infringement is one of a group of related intellectual property exposures that also includes trademark, trade name and trade dress infringement, but it is the exposure that most often triggers headline grabbing lawsuits and super-sized settlements. Many of the largest and most contentious copyright battles have been waged in the entertainment arena.

Real Time Example: Apple vs Microsoft

The battle between these technical giants started with a simple question: Who invented the graphical user interface (GUI)? The company that controls the interface of the next major operating system will have the ability to set the standards for application software, so it's unsurprising that Apple tried to stop Windows from becoming a major operating system.

It seemed that although Microsoft helped develop Macintosh, Jean-Louis, who had taken over from Steve Jobs at the time, refused to allow Microsoft to use their software. Bill Gates pressed on nonetheless, deciding to add in features of its own to early prototypes of the Macintosh. 

When Jean-Louis noted the software, he was enraged. However, he didn't want a lawsuit, and ended up agreeing to license the Mac's visual displays. But Windows 2.0 turned out to be almost identical, and Jean-Louis believed it to be a breach of contract, only having allowed their software to be used for 1.0 and not future versions.

So, without warning, Apple filed a lawsuit against Microsoft in 1988. Apple's case included 189 contested visual displays that violated its copyright. This led to a six-year long battle.

In 1989, the court ruled that 179 of the 189 disputed displays were covered by the existing license. Furthermore, the other ten were not violations of Apple's copyright due to the merger doctrine, where the idea-expression divide limits the scope of copyright protection by differentiating an idea from the manifestation of that idea.

The lawsuit was decided in Microsoft's favor onAugust 24, 1993.

Future Impact

Copyright was created in an analog age. By default, copyright closes the door on countless ways that people can share, build upon, and remix each other's work, possibilities that were unimaginable when those laws were established. I personally believe that the copyright will still go on but they might become less and less relevant. This is just because the fixed content will give way to the constantly changing texts and not because of the advocated of open access or not just because of the free information. At the end a moving target cannot be copyrighted and so a little need to the copyright is still expected. The plasticity of digital text becomes important, as it creates obstacles to piracy by allowing the primary content to be mutated in numerous ways. The investments will move from creating a finished good to developing networks that embody that good.

Remedy Solutions

Anyone who violates the exclusive rights of the copyright owner as provided by the law is treated as an infringer of the copyright. The term anyone includes any person or any State or any officer or any employee of a State who might be an official authority.

Injunctions

Copying of ones work may cause damage to the reputation and sometimes also financial damages. If the desist letter and the cease do not end violation of the copyright then an injection may be sought under which the infringing party will be requested to do what was mentioned in the letter by the court. As the infringing use is still going on it can cause continued damages, courts can also issue preliminary injunctions, ordering a defendant to cease a certain activity even before the case is heard.

Impoundment

Sometimes a court has over defendants because the close of a case, a plaintiff can request that the court order that the impoundment of any potentially infringing merchandise or other objects. If there is an ultimate finding of improper infringement, this material will be destroyed or otherwise disposed of.

Conclusion

A copyright infringement case should be approached with at most care. Case's factual, statutory, court-created and practically necessary puzzle pieces should be identified, addressed, and related to each other sooner rather than later.

The copyright trial will be much more expensive than any other court case in the entire globe. While turning a blind eye to infringement is infuriating, filing a copyright infringement suit without enough money in the bank can be a negative-yield activity.This educational overview does not advise anyone about any specific situation. Statements are made which have exceptions, do not apply to all facts, and with which skilled lawyers disagree. Nothing stated here is 100% true or attributable to the author's firm or clients.