The Beginners Guide To Understanding Copyright Infringement

As youre creating something, you may wonderAmerica. This means they think 30 percent of the
what copyright infringement actually is. Itssoftware on your computer is illegal.
necessary, if youre creating a work -- albeitHowever, copyright holders have good reason to
written, musical, videos, software or some otherworry that were violating their rules: the number
form -- that you know the definition of copyrightof suspects referred to the United States
infringement. This issue is very complicated, andattorneys with an intellectual property lead
not very easily spelled out in plain English.increased twenty six percent in the period
Copyright infringement is defined by thebetween 2002 and 2004 -- and this number is
jurisdiction -- the United States of America hasrising. Copyright infringement statistics are difficult
different copyright laws than the United Kingdom,to come by, but its plain to see its affecting
or Australia, or Russia, or even China. Because ofevery aspect of intellectual copy.
this fact, you should first, before anything else,Copyright infringement statistics show a lot of
check the laws in your jurisdiction (country, cityviolations in pirating software and music. Many
and province) before using something that isnt inunsuspecting people, from college students to
the public domain.thirty-something professionals, download music on
For our definition of copyright infringement, worksa consistent basis, and often its not downloaded
in the public domain arent copyrightable. Workslegally. Often times, someone will download a song
that arent copyrightable include ideas, works thatoff a MySpace or YouTube page, without giving
arent eligible (150 years-old documents, or older --thought to who owns the copyright and if its legal
think Beethoven and Frankenstein), data that isntfor them to have it.
categorized in a creative way (this could be aCopyright infringement statistics, brought to us by
database, such as a phone book or otherthe music recording industry, would have us
publicly-accessible data), or items that the ownersbelieve that online infringement is seriously hurting
have specified creative commons copyrights.the recording industry. Statistics also show that
As you can see, copyright law is rathermany people are downloading games off the
complicated. Wikipedia.org gives us the definition ofInternet. With the litany of games available to us
copyright infringement as: Copyright infringement-- from complete alternate worlds such as World
(or copyright violation) is the unauthorized use ofof Warcraft to the more mainstream The Sims
material that is protected by intellectual propertyseries -- people are clamoring for PC games.
rights law particularly the copyright in a mannerTheyre fun, intelligent games that play on a
that violates one of the original copyright owner'ssystem everyone has -- a computer. Because of
exclusive rights, such as the right to reproduce orthis, people are always looking for new games to
perform the copyrighted work, or to makeplay and download, and they may download a
derivative works that build upon it. The slang termgame without knowing that its not freeware (as
bootleg (derived from the use of the shank of amany Internet games are).
boot for the purposes of smuggling) is often usedIn addition to computer games, copyright
to describe illicitly copied material.infringement statistics also show that movies are
Our definition of copyright infringement includesdownloaded in abundance on the Internet. Many
the works of creative commons. Creativepeer to peer file distribution sites and programs
commons is an organization that allows for the(such as Kazaa) allow transferring of large files;
copyright author to determine the uses availableplus theyre easy to find online. Using a tool
for people who want to use their works -- forprovided by one of many suppliers, users can
such items as for audio, images, video, text,search for any item they like -- and, of course,
educational materials, and software. It allows forthe system is abused and people download
the copyright owner to allow people to use theircopyrighted movies and entire DVDs instead of
works for non-commercial, commercial, nopublicly available works.
derivatives, share alike, or just by givingCopyright infringement also branches into written
attribution. Creative Commons is a license grantedworks, such as articles, books, poems, etc. Many
by the copyright holder, and can be used in bothtimes, a student will copy a paragraph or two
online (electronic Internet) works and offlinewithout realizing the implications of such copying.
works.While they may think of it as borrowing, if its
The real definition of copyright infringementused on a grander scale, the person could be
comes from your jurisdictions statutes. In theopening themselves up to a large court fight,
United States of America, our jurisdictionsespecially if its used commercially.
copyright laws are contained in Title 17 of theAs you can see, copyright infringement statistics
United States Code, 501 - 513. You can also find ashow us that many people use copyrighted works
definition of copyright infringement through suchillegally. Do your best diligence when using
organizations such as the European Union or Worldanothers work -- and ask for permission every
Trade Organizations.time you want to use something that you havent
Copyright Infringement Statisticscreated. Chances are, if you just ask the question
Copyright infringement statistics, by mostup front youll save yourself from becoming a
standards, are inflated. Most recent copyrightcopyright infringement statistic and save yourself
infringement statistics cite that almost 30 percentfrom a major lawsuit.
of software is pirated in the United States of