Information on Violating Website Copyright Laws

Website copyrights protect text, graphics, music and design codes.

Copyright law protects an original work of authorship as soon as it is reduced to a tangible medium, even without a copyright notice or federal registration. Although standard copyright law applies to online material, a growing body of law addresses special concerns raised by the use of copyrighted material on websites.

Fair Use

"Fair use" is an exception to copyright protection that allows the use of a small portion of a copyrighted work, as long as the author is attributed and the use serves a socially beneficial purpose such as criticism, commentary or education. Exactly how much use is "fair" depends on several factors such as the size of the portion used compared to the total size of the work, the importance of the portion used in the context of the work as a whole, and whether or not the use is likely to deprive the copyright holder of revenue. Although linking to a non-infringing website containing copyrighted material normally does not constitute "use" at all, forwarding copyrighted material by email constitutes use of the material that may or may not be judged as fair use.

Copyright Licensing

The Creative Commons is a website that allows copyright holders to license their work free of charge. Various types of licenses are offered. An attribution license, for example, allows others to use, sell and even modify a copyrighted work as long as they credit the original author. Another form of the license allows others to use and sell a copyrighted work as long as they credit the author and do not modify the work. Once the copyright holder selects a license, the Creative Commons generates html code containing the license terms that can be electronically embedded in the work.

U. S. Government Works

By law, the U.S. federal government cannot claim U.S. copyright protection of any work created by a federal government employee in the course of his official duties. Works created by independent contractors for use by the government enjoy copyright protection, as do previously copyrighted works that are included or quoted in government publications.

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (the "DMCA") was signed into law in 1998. It purpose is to address the unique copyright concerns triggered by technological advances, including the widespread use of the Internet. The DMCA prohibits the circumvention of technology designed to prevent the unauthorized use of copyrighted material. It also allows Internet service providers to protect themselves from infringement claims for displaying links to infringing websites or allowing users to upload infringing material, as long as they implement a system that effectively responds to complaints filed by copyright holders.

File Sharing

Uploading or downloading free copyrighted works on peer-to-peer networks without the permission of the author constitutes infringement because it deprives the author of royalties he otherwise would have obtained if the violator had paid for the work. Uploading is considered more serious than downloading because an uploaded file might be downloaded by thousands of users. In 2003, the Recording Industry Association of America sued a group of university students for distributing music via file sharing and eventually negotiated settlements of $12,000 from each student.

References

• The Eggleston Group: at Every Webmaster Needs To Know About Copyright Law; T.S. Eggleston; November 2010
• Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication: The Creative Commons and Copyright Protection in the Digital Era: Uses of Creative Commons Licenses; Minjeong Kim; 2007
• Dartmouth University: Peer-to-Peer File Sharing and Copyright Law; September 2008
• Internet Attorney: Copyright Law for Webmasters; Timothy J. Walden, 2000
• FindLaw: Can I Place Copyrighted Works on My Website?
• Chilling Effects: Frequently Asked Questions (and Answers) about DMCA Safe Harbor

Resources

• The Creative Commons