How To Avoid Committing Copyright Infringement

Today technology has made it very easy to make copies of books, tapes, DVDs and other creative works. Burning a CD, photocopying pages from a book, making recordings of television programs – all these activities have become ordinary chores that most people perform at one time or another. As a result, copyright infringement has become a very commonplace legal transgression. Due to this, it is useful for everyone to know when such seemingly harmless actions are actually illegal.

A Simple Legal Definition

In the simplest of terms, copyright infringement is the violation of a copyright owner’s exclusive entitlements through the unauthorized duplication, adaptation, revision or selling of protected creative works such as books, software or artwork, to name a few. This definition, though, is qualified or limited by certain elements that need to be present before any of the mentioned acts become legal violations. In addition, there are exceptions to the restrictions imposed by copyrights.

Infringement can only take place if a valid copyright exists. In turn, this validity requires that the work protected by a copyright be an original work. Originality in this case means that the work should have been created independently and not adapted from other works. A work is also certifiably original if some degree of creativity has been expressed in the work.

A copyright can only be valid if the work it seeks to protect is permanent or fixed and has been expressed in a form that is tangible or visible. Infringement is also possible only if copying or duplicating of protected items actually took place.

Acts Considered Copyright Infringement

Apart from the malicious production of copyright protected works, other acts are still considered infringement. When composers create songs and later find out these are extremely similar to already existing compositions covered by a copyright this act is still considered illegal. Nevertheless, when this act takes place unconsciously it is called innocent infringement.

Another type of infringement is indirectly profiting from a violation committed by another. A common example of this would be buying and selling copies of books that were illegally printed.

Exceptions to Copyright

There are certain items that cannot be covered by a copyright. Therefore, copying them in part or in full cannot be considered infringement. Among these items are works that are not permanently expressed in a visible or tangible form. An example would be a song that has not been recorded or a speech that was not in written form.

Titles, slogans, popular symbols, familiar designs and lists of ingredients are examples of works that cannot be copyright protected therefore using them at will cannot be considered infringement. This is equally true for ideas, concepts or principles although their description or illustration, held distinct from them, can be covered by a copyright.

Some ideas are considered common property; these have no known author and have been publicly used by people for countless years. Among these things would be calendars; charts, tables or lists derived from public documents; rulers and tape measures.

Avoiding Infringement

It is always wise to avoid infringement and the simplest way to do this is to pay attention to the copyright statement that is usually contained in protected items. When the notice specifically states that permission should be sought for reprinting or copying the item, usually there is an address to contact for permission. If no address has been included, you have the prerogative to search the Internet for websites that can help you obtain permission. Most of these websites have gone the extra length in their sincere effort to provide the addresses of agencies dealing with concerns relating to music, text, photographs, plays, and motion pictures.

Avoiding infringement means preventing troublesome conflicts and legal problems. More importantly, this ethical act stems from respect for the rights of artists and writers to benefit from their work. Hopefully, people will realize that regardless of how easy infringement has become because of technology, this respect is worth cultivating.