Copyright Infringement
Computing @ Carnegie Mellon
Group Presentation
Date: 10/01/2009
Present by:
Shao-Chuan Fang
Jaime McDermott
Emily Nagin
Michael Piston
Fan Yang
Digital Millennium Copyright Act
Enacted 1998
• Outlines rules for a new generation of
copyright laws with the Internet Revolution
• Gives protection to OSPs(including ISPs such
as CMU or Comcast) provided that they follow
certain rules
• Added Anti-Circumvention guidelines that
prevent loopholes in the future by allowing for
updates by the copyright office in the future.
Jaime McDermott
Digital Millennium Copyright Act
Enacted 1998
• Outlines rules for a new generation of
copyright laws with the Internet Revolution
• Gives protection to OSPs(including ISPs such
as CMU or Comcast) provided that they follow
certain rules
• Added Anti-Circumvention guidelines that
prevent loopholes in the future by allowing for
updates by the copyright office in the future.
Jaime McDermott
A & M Records, Inc. v. Napster, Inc.
2001
• Failing to take steps against infringement,
knowingly, and profiting from that
infringement is grounds for
Contributory Infringement.
• In this case, Napster had ads on its software,
so it was profiting from users who committed
copyright infringement, and the software
company took no steps to stop infringement.
Jaime McDermott
MGM Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd.
2005
• P2P(Person to Person) software can be held
liable for copyright infringement made by its
users if “affirmative steps taken to foster
infringement” were taken.
• Basically, if a software company refused to
divulge information about its users, then the
company itself could be liable for its users
Jaime McDermott
Perfect 10 v. CCBill LLC
2007
• Placed the burden of prosecuting offenders of
the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act)
upon the holders of the copyright.
• The only cases in which the government
would prosecute DMCA infringers would be
cases in which state or federal governments
actually owned the item being infringed upon.
Jaime McDermott
Ways to Avoid Infringement
Fan yang
Giving Credit
• Obtain the author's permission before using his
expression of ideas or facts
– Ex. Information from websites
– avoid using large segments of someone else's
expression verbatim
• Sometimes you do not have to get permission
from the creator, but you do need to give credit
to the creator
– Ex. Acknowledge the artist for a song you use during a
presentation
Other Strategies
• Use Public Domain images
– Check the rules for a specific collection
• Use out-of-copyright materials
– Published before 1923
– Created before 1/1/1978 but not published
Mike Piston
And why it’s considered such a
problem
Mike Piston
Criticism of Copyright Infringement
• Copyright Infringement is considered a large
problem because it is considered stealing and
can result in a lot of trouble.
• It is extremely difficult in today’s society to
limit copyright infringement due to the
accessibility of information through the use of
computers and the internet.
Mike Piston
Two Forms of Copyright Infringement
Civil
• The civil penalties for
copyright infringement can
also be broken into two
more groups, whether or
not they are registered with
the Library of Congress.
Criminal
• The criminal penalties for
copyright infringement are
not as common as you
would think. Some experts
believe that there will be a
significant increase in
criminal prosecutions
associated with copyright
infringement sometime in
the near future.
Mike Piston
More on Civil Penalties
• Penalties that are not registered with the Library
of Congress require you to just pay back the
actual losses sustained by the copyright owner as
the result of the infringement. Which is the
lightest possible sentence.
• Penalties that are registered with the Library of
Congress make the copyright owner allowed to
receive three times as much from the actually
damage obtained. Excluding attorney fees these
cases.
Mike Piston
More on Criminal Penalties
• One area in which criminal prosecutions have
become very frequent is in the reproduction of
copyrighted materials, mainly CD’s and DVDs that are
mass produced.
• If you get caught for criminal copyright infringement,
you face a possible maximum penalty of up to five
years in prison and up to a $250,000 monetary fine.
Reducing Copyright Infringement
The best way to reduce copyright infringement is
to avoid it!
•With the work of others
•When using someone else’s idea, music, image, or words in a paper,
story, art piece, website, etc, be sure to give the creator credit and to
use proper citation
•Always use quotation marks when quoting someone verbatim
•You still need to cite a paraphrased idea if the idea is not yours
•If someone helps you with a paper or project, write an acknowledgement and thank
him or her
•Do not buy bootleg recordings of music or pirated movies
•Do not illegally download music or movies—taking advantage of
stolen information only makes the problem worse!
•With your own work
•In order to avoid copyright violation of your own work, be sure to
register your work with the United States Copyright Office. If your
work is not registered and someone steals or copies it, you have no
legal right to sue for copyright infringement.