Copyright infringement

“ Infringement is commonly taken to mean specific invasion of the author's rights rather than wholesale piracy; and the question of what is infringement or "literary larceny" is more often a question of the interpretation of the facts than the construction of the statute. The legal cases arising under infringement constitute a very large proportion of copyright litigation, demanding as they do judicial determination as to the acts complained of in each particular case. ”

“ Moreover, [the offenders] avail themselves of the exceptions to copyright infringement under the present law on copyright to assert that the reproduction is for their personal use. It is thus appropriate to amend the Copyright Act, 2537 BE, by designating the commission of a copyright infringement in the said manner as a specific offence liable to the same penalty as that for an infringement of copyright for a commercial purpose. ”

“ Even so-called “innocent infringers” fall within the statute’s liability provisions, although they may be liable for reduced statutory damages. [225] Second, the statute provides severe penalties for copyright infringement. A copyright plaintiff who cannot prove a penny of actual injury may nevertheless receive statutory damage awards that loom extraordinarily large in many cases: $750 to $30,000 per work infringed, increased to up to $150,000 per work if the infringement was willful. ”

“ C. Fair Use and Interbranch Partnership There is precedent for the courts exercising their substantial policymaking powers in the domain of copyright to craft judge-made exceptions to liability based on public policy considerations even where the literal text of the statute seems to require a finding of infringement. Two features of copyright law in particular support an ongoing judicial role in recognizing exceptions to liability. First, copyright infringement is a strict liability offense ”

“ Generally, to establish a claim of copyright infringement, a creator or holder of copyright need only show that they have a valid copyright in the work and that the defendant copied protected expression from the work. ”

“ Just as the fair use doctrine would do relatively little to defeat a claim of copyright infringement where works closer to the “core” of copyright protection are copied, [256] a doctrine of fair circumvention would impose comparatively weak limits on the reach of DMCA liability in similar circumstances.
Risks to intellectual property markets, to take another example, are readily encompassed within both the first and, especially, the fourth fair use factors. ”

“ The Chamberlain court’s apparent assumption that the defendant must have either infringed, or at least helped contribute to the infringement of, plaintiff’s copyrights also coexists uneasily alongside Congress’s express disavowal in the DMCA of any intention to alter the existing contours of secondary liability for copyright infringement. ”

“ Each Party shall provide procedures, whether judicial or administrative, in accordance with that Party’s legal system, and consistent with principles of due process and privacy, that enable a copyright owner that has made a legally sufficient claim of copyright infringement to obtain expeditiously from an Internet Service Provider information in the provider’s possession identifying the alleged infringer, in cases in which that information is sought for the purpose of protecting or enforcing that copyright. ”

“ Reference to the broader corpus of federal copyright law is essential to give these provisions of the DMCA any meaning at all. Liability for both circumvention and trafficking, for instance, exists only where technological measures protect a presently copyrighted work; that is, the existence of a valid copyright is an express statutory precondition both to a claim for copyright infringement and a claim arising under the DMCA. [164] One of the DMCA’s two bans on trafficking in circumvention devices imposes liability only where “a right of a copyright owner” is at stake. ”

“ For example, a library may lend an authorized copy of a book that it lawfully owns without violating the copyright laws. See H.R.Rep. No. 94-1476, § 109, at 79 (1976) , reprinted in 1976 U.S.C.C.A.N. 5659, 5693 and excerpted following 17 U.S.C.A. § 109. However, distributing unlawful copies of a copyrighted work does violate the copyright owner’s distribution right and, as a result, constitutes copyright infringement. In order to establish “distribution” of a copyrighted work, a party must show that an unlawful copy was disseminated “to the public.” ”

“ Internet service providers, for example, got a qualified immunity from copyright infringement that occurs over their networks. But ordinary citizens, librarians, and civil libertarians also complained, and they were not as well represented in the legislature. It is true that the new rules may help to prevent illicit copying, but they also strike a blow against the exercise of fair use rights—rights that are important both to free speech and competition. Even if the content companies were absolutely right about the threats from digital piracy, this consequence should make us pause. ”

“ The absence of such express language in the copyright statute does not preclude the imposition of liability for copyright infringements on certain parties who have not themselves engaged in the infringing activity. [17] For vicarious liability is imposed in virtually all areas of the law, and the concept of contributory infringement is merely a species of the broader problem of identifying the circumstances in which it is just to hold one individual accountable for the actions of another. ”

“ If 60% of an RTC copyrighted document is copied to form 100% of a Lerma document, without any change or commentary whatsoever, this still does not constitute fair use.
Number of Infringing Acts -- Although each of the 33 binders contained in RTC's G-Series Exhibits are infringing, this does not necessarily indicate 33 acts of infringement. The Copyright Act clearly states that for purposes of calculating statutory damages for copyright infringement, “all the parts of a compilation or derivative work constitute one work.” ”

“ To simplify exposition, we refer to the appellant as "Aimster" and to the appellees (the plaintiffs) as the recording industry.
Teenagers and young adults who have access to the Internet like to swap computer files containing popular music. If the music is copyrighted, such swapping, which involves making and transmitting a digital copy of the music, infringes copyright. The swappers, who are ignorant or more commonly disdainful of copyright and in any event discount the likelihood of being sued or prosecuted for copyright infringement, are the direct infringers. ”

“ In copyright infringement cases, the general rule is that a showing of a prima facie case raises a presumption of irreparable harm. Apple Computer, Inc. v. Franklin Computer Corp., 714 F.2d 1240, 1254 (3d Cir. 1983) , cert. dismissed, 464 U.S. 1033, 104 S.Ct. 690, 79 L.Ed.2d 158 (1984) . West has made a strong claim for copyright infringement and is therefore entitled to this presumption. Furthermore, MDC's intended use of West's page numbers may significantly affect demand for West's volumes; this further supports West's claim of irreparable injury. ”

“ The requirement that a putatively infringing use of a copyrighted work, to be “fair,” must not impair a “potential” market for the work has two implications. First, an infringer cannot prevail merely by demonstrating that the copyright holder suffered no net harm from the infringer’s action. Indeed, even a showing that the infringement has resulted in a net benefit to the copyright holder will not suffice. ”

“ Thus, infringement takes place whenever all or any substantial portion of the actual sounds that go to make up a copyrighted sound recording are reproduced in phonorecords by repressing, transcribing, recapturing off the air, or any other method, or by reproducing them in the soundtrack or audio portion of a motion picture or other audiovisual work. Mere imitation of a recorded performance would not constitute a copyright infringement even where one performer deliberately sets out to simulate another’s performance as exactly as possible. ”

“ But firms that facilitate their infringement, even if they are not themselves infringers because they are not making copies of the music that is shared, may be liable to the copyright owners as contributory infringers. ”

“ I would grant the petition to consider the question whether 17 U.S.C. §402 (d) applies when a person is found to have engaged in copyright infringement by down-loading digital music files. Under §504 (c) (1) , an infringer is ordinarily liable for statutory damages of "not less than $750 or more than $30,000" per work infringed. In a case involving an "innocent infringer," however, the minimum statutory damages that must be awarded are reduced. ”

“ Accordingly, each Party shall ensure that legal remedies are available for right holders to address such copyright infringement and shall establish or maintain appropriate safe harbours in respect of online services that are Internet Service Providers. ”

“ More importantly, copyright holders at least potentially have other tools available to reduce piracy and to abate whatever threat it poses to creative production. As today’s opinion makes clear, a copyright holder may proceed against a technology provider where a provable specific intent to infringe (of the kind the Court describes) is present. Ante, at 941. Services like Grokster may well be liable under an inducement theory.
In addition, a copyright holder has always had the legal authority to bring a traditional infringement suit against one who wrongfully copies. ”

“ This is why science fiction magazines try to trick writers into signing over improbable rights for things like theme park rides and action figures based on their work — it's also why literary agents are now asking for copyright-long commissions on the books they represent: copyright covers so much ground and takes to long to shake off, who wouldn't want a piece of it?
* Liability goes through the roof. Copyright infringement, especially on the Net, is a supercrime. ”

“ The new British measure comprehensively defines infringement as the doing without consent of the owner of the copyright of "anything the sole right to do which is by this act conferred on the owner of the copyright," but specifically excepts (1) fair dealing for private study, research, criticism, review or newspaper summary; (2) use by an artist of sketches, etc., made for a work of which he has sold the copyright, provided he does not repeat or imitate that work; (3) graphic reproduction of objects, or photographing of paintings, etc., in a public place ”

“ In the US, lawsuits were filed by the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers (AAP) for alleged copyright infringement. The assumption is that the full scanning and digitizing of copyrighted books infringes copyright laws, even if only snippets are made freely available on the search engine. To counteract copyright concerns and the problems of a closed platform, the Internet Archive launched the Open Content Alliance (OCA) with the goal of digitizing only public domain books and make them searchable and downloadable through any search engine. ”

“ We reverse and remand for further proceedings the claims of copyright infringement pertaining to the books copied during their initial terms, all periodical articles, the sound recordings, and the photographs by Clifford Frederick and Durga Mata.
AFFIRMED IN PART, REVERSED IN PART, AND REMANDED. Each party to bear its own costs. ”

“ Section 106 Copyright Owner's Rights Reproduction Derivative works Public distribution Public performance Public Display Digital audio transmission of sound recordings Importation
For works of visual art (106a)
Attribution Integrity You may infringe someone's copyright when you reproduce a copyrighted work; prepare derivative works based on a work; or distribute, perform or display a work publicly. [1] But engaging in these activities without permission doesn't necessarily result in copyright infringement ”

“ Where copyright in any work has been infringed, the owner of the copyright shall, except as otherwise provided by this Act, be entitled to all such remedies by way of injunction or interdict, damages, accounts, and otherwise, as are or may be conferred by law for the infringement of a right. ”

“ When making the demand provided for in the preceding paragraph, the author, the copyright holder, the holder of the right of publication, the performer or the holder of the neighboring rights may [also] demand the taking of measures necessary to effect the cessation or prevention of the infringement, such as the destruction of objects constituting the acts of infringement, objects made by acts of infringement, and/or machines and tools used exclusively for acts of infringement. ”

“ Also, it is appropriate to establish additional exceptions to infringement of copyright or performers' rights, as well as to empower the courts to order infringers of copyright or performers' rights to pay additional damages for works subject to copyright or performers' rights which have been made accessible by the public on a wide scale and to empower the courts to order confiscating or destroying things used in the commission of offences and things made or brought in to the Kingdom in a manner infringing copyright or performers' rights. ”

“ Business Guides considers the presence of seeds in a competitor's directory to be evidence of copyright infringement. #fn-s [1]
On October 31, 1986, Business Guides, through its counsel Finley, Kumble, Wagner, Heine, Unterberg, Manley, Myerson, and Casey (Finley, Kumble) , filed an action in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California against Chromatic Communications Enterprises, Inc., claiming copyright infringement, conversion, and unfair competition, and seeking a temporary restraining order (TRO) . ”