Copyright Infringement Essay

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Copyright Infringement Copyright is a form of protection provided by the laws of the U.S. to the authors of “original works of authorship,” including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works. Infringement includes the unauthorized or unlicensed copying of a work subject to copyright (Carney, 1998). Copyrights were created because of people stealing things from others that they didn’t created and trying to make profit off of it. The 1976 act is now the primary basis of copyright law in the United States. Congress passed the first Copyrights can be obtained for many different kinds of things. For example, literary works, musical works, sound recordings, and etc. Copyright holders have five rights. The five rights are: (1) the right to reproduce, (2) the right to create derivative works from the original, (3) commercialize the work, (4) to perform the work publicly (if relevant), and (5) to display the work publicly (if relevant) (Moore,2009). Copyright infringement can have very serious consequences. Some of the consequences include, automatic failure of course and possible further disciplinary action (if academic), the owner is allowed to take legal action to get damages, and one could be up to $150,000 if determined to be willful (Stevens, 2011). According to Moore, The Act provides a four prong factor test to determine whether fair use has occurred: (1) the purpose and character of the use (for instance, whether it is commercial or educational); (2) the nature of the copyrighted work (how creative is the work); (3) the amount and substantiality of the portion of the original work used; and, (4) the effect of the use upon the original work in the market (or potential market). The fair use defense was also extended to unpublished works. Being the holder of a copyright also has some benefits. The benefits include protecting

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