Neha Kapoor Sarah Weingarten Daymanuel Sampson Christina Miller
COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT
What is Copyright Infringement?
 unauthorized or prohibited use of works covered
by a copyright law
 often refers to production/acquisition of any
illegal derivative of the work
 Text
 TV and Film
 DVDs
 Music
 Bootleg Copies
 Samplings
 Piracy - unauthorized reproduction and
distribution of electronic and audio-visual media
Courtesy of Wikipedia
Basics of Copyright Infringement
Prima Facie
Ownership
Of a Valid
Copyright
Actual
Copying
Misappropriation
•Plaintiff establishes ownership by authorship
•It is an original work of authorship that is fixed in
a tangible medium.
• Books or Musical Recordings
•Plaintiff establishes copy with (in)direct
evidence.
•Direct is through admission or witness
testimony
•Commonly, relies on circumstantial evidence
•Plaintiff may prove distribution over large
geographical area
•Copyrighted work may contain elements which are
not copyrightable i.e. facts, ideas, themes, content
in public domain
•Must first demonstrate that defendant
appropriated from the copyrighted work, which was
protectable
•Plaintiff must show that the intended audience will
recognize substantial similarities between the two
works.
The first official copyright
law only pertained to
books.
This copyright law, known
as the Statute of Anne,
gave the rights to copy,
redistribute, or import a
book to the author of that
book.
With the rise of computers, networks, and the
internet, it's become really easy to create new
works, to steal other's, and to redistribute illegal
copies of other people's property.
Piracy and copyright infringement exponentially
grew when data went from hardcopy to digital.
 Measures to counteract copyright
infringement:
 Registering material as copyrighted
 Copyright laws
 Statute of Anne gave 14 years of protection to books
 Watermarks over pictures
 Plagiarism-checking web sites
 Elimination of Youtube.com
 Is copyright infringement an issue?
 Works are allowed to be accessed if used
under “fair use”
 Why it is:
 Takes credit for someone else’s work (blatantly or
not)
 Theft
 Why it is not:
 Works were made to be accessed by others
 Free advertising!
OUR OPINION
We believe copyright infringement is completely wrong.
•UNFAIR
•INAPPROPRIATE
•VIOLATION OF EXCLUSIVE
RIGHTS/ILLEGAL
•SHOULD NOT TAKE ADVANTAGE OF
SOMEONE ELSE’S HARD WORK
•IMMORAL
 UNFAIR
It is unfair to download material without the approval of
the author. No individual should be more privileged
than any one else by downloading the material for
free.
 INAPPROPRIATE
It is inappropriate to steal someone’s work.
 ILLEGAL VIOLATION OF EXCLUSIVE RIGHTS
It is the unauthorized downloading of copyrighted
material.
 SHOULD NOT TAKE ADVANTAGE OF SOMEONE
ELSE’S HARD WORK
They should be able to benefit/profit from their own work.
 IMMORAL
Stealing goes against good values.
If you want to stay out of prison…
…then do your own work!
Copyright infringement is for people that aren’t
as intelligent and talented as Carnegie Mellon
students, anyway. (=
Note that the pictures used are not
ours. It would be horribly ironic
for us to infringe upon copyrights.
Pictures from:
 http://www.pdnonline.com/pdn/photos/stylus
/70085-faireyapcase.jpg
 http://buildingtheergonomicguitar.com/wpcontent/uploads/Blog-Notes/SploggerContent-Theft.gif
 http://ashtoncoleman.files.wordpress.com/20
08/04/298043.jpg