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Movie Copyright Law College Students Are Being Targeted For Breaking Movie Copyright Law Many people have taken up the hobby of downloading movies and songs on the Internet and sharing them with their friends and family online. However, this is direct violation of the movie copyright law. Not surprisingly, the biggest violators of the movie copyright law are students. It is not surprising that the movie industry sector is sending out copyright infringements claims to college universities around the country. One reason that college students may be the hardest hit when it comes to violations brought against them for infringing on movie copyright law is that they are not aware of how serious a crime it truly it. Many college students who have suits brought against them are shocked, to say the least. They question why they were not warned about the perils of downloading movies and songs online and passing them along to friends. However, with the rise of claims that are being handed down, no one can claim ignorance for much longer. Word is being spread near and far that if you are engaging in illegal downloading and/or sharing then you can be brought to court. College students are learning the hard way that it is against the law and in violation of the movie copyright law to share or download copyrighted material. Many colleges and universities are now stating in their handbooks that it is against the law and the university rules to illegally download movies, music and other forms of media online using a school computer. In addition to illegal downloading and sharing software, the files take up space on the computer systems and use a considerable amount of bandwidth. While most universities and colleges will not look at the content an individual has -- they can isolate and identify the individuals who are hogging up the bandwidth by using illegal file sharing software. The movie and music industries have stepped in and are demanding restitution for illegally downloaded movies, music and other forms of copyrighted media. They have detection agencies that have the technology to identify and trace copyright infringements straight to their source. Once the computer is located they can notify the university or the college that they are in violation. The university will be told that they have a copyright infringement claim against them. Based on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act once the computer is isolated Internet access is terminated to that computer and court proceedings can begin. Does this sound far fetched? Well, it is not. You should know that in April of 2003 four students were sued by Recording Industry Association of America. These students attended Princeton, Michigan Technical University and Rensselear Polytechnic Institute. One student alone had an estimated liability of $150 billion. When you consider that you can be charged $750 per song that is illegally downloaded, the total can add up fast! The good thing is the lawsuits against the college students were settled for amounts less than $20,000. That is not pocket change for college students – or anyone for that matter! Movies and music are meant to be enjoyed. However, illegally downloading movies and music is not much different than walking into a video store and sticking DVDs and CDs in your pocket. Be careful. You do not want to be caught violating the movie copyright law.

Copyright Infringement Play It Safe: Making Sure You're Not Committing Copyright Infringement Copyright infringement is not an easy thing to explain. While it may seem as simple as not using someone else’s work, it’s not that easy. Thanks to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and many other organizations, we have the ability to use others’ works – as long as we use it under ‘fair use’ laws. So what does fair use have to do with copyright infringement, and how can you utilize it? Fair use laws are the conditions in which you can use a copyrighted work without having to pay someone royalties. This includes when you use a copyrighted work for educational or instructional uses, criticism of the work, commentaries on the work, news reporting about the work, teaching on the work (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship uses, and research. This is talked about fully in Section 107 of the Copyright Code (commonly called Fair Use) and is available for you to read at your local library. Copyright Infringement in day-to-day life Sometimes, if you’re writing a paper for work or school, or if you are creating a Power Point presentation, you need to use someone’s work that is already in copyright. So how do you use it without committing copyright infringement? All you have to do is ask – the worst they can say is no, right? But, if they do say no, there are several items in the public domain which may help you to finish your project without having to commit copyright infringement. What is the public domain, and how does it relate to copyright infringement? Material that is not copyrighted is considered in the public domain – you cannot commit copyright infringement on works in the public domain. These works include things that the copyright has expired on, or is not copyright-able – such as government publications, jokes, titles, and ideas. Some creators (writers, musicians, artists, and more) deliberately put their work in the public domain, without ever obtaining copyright, by providing an affiliation with Creative Commons. Creative Commons allows people who create materials to forfeit some, or all, of their copyright rights and place their work either partially or fully in the public domain. So, how do I ensure I’m not committing copyright infringement? First of all, if you’re going to use someone else’s material, you may want to check the public domain to see if something is suitable for use, instead of trying to use someone else’s copyright. However, if you can’t find something suitable (and you can’t create something yourself), the next best thing (and your only legal course of action) is to find a piece that is in copyright, and contacting the copyright holder. When you contact the copyright holder, make sure you tell them what you want to use their piece for – whether it’s for your blog, podcast, or report – and ask them if you can use it. You may have to pay royalties, or an attribution in your piece, or a combination of both. The creator may also place many limitations on when and how you can use their material. Follow all these instructions they give you, and you’ll be free and clear to use their work as you want. Once you have permission to use a copyrighted work, you need to make sure you stay within the agreed-upon boundaries - if you veer outside their agreed terms, you may open yourself up for a copyright infringement lawsuit – which can be nasty, costly, and time consuming. If you’re in doubt, before contacting the copyright holder, contact a copyright lawyer to ensure you’re following the law – and protect yourself!

Copyright lawyer trademark Learning about a Copyright Lawyer Trademark You may need a copyright lawyer trademark if you own your own website or are an author of a book. If you haven’t already spoke with one you may want to do it very soon to find out if your articles/site can be trademarked or if it is already taken. One way to make sure you have the copyright to all of your work is by making sure you have the little “c” inside the circle at the end of your article or the bottom of your webpage. For instance a slogan can be considered a trademark, think of the milk commercial, remember that certain phrase? You can bet money that had a copyright lawyer trademark it for the milk company. There are many popular household products that have been trademarked; you probably wouldn’t recognize the product without it. Drive down the road and look at how many trademarks you see on restaurants, each one of those famous places had a copyright lawyer trademark their signature. Many products that may need protecting may include songs, products such as household or commercial, designs, ads, etc. If you think the idea is a good one, it probably needs some form of protection and the best person to help you with that is a copyright lawyer trademark. There are actually three forms of trademark that you probably weren’t aware of which is why a good copyright lawyer trademark will come in handy. There is common trademark which is just like it sounds. A state trademark, which means you, filed your trademark with the state in which you reside. An example for this might be a company using their city in their business name. Third is the federal registration trademark, this is a registration that can be renewed every year or forever. Someone that has a website that is becoming popular may want to make sure they reserve their trademark forever so that someone else doesn’t buy it down the road. Keep in mind that just because you buy a domain name doesn’t mean you actually own the trademark, you might actually see another site with the same name. If you don’t want this to be the case, have a copyright lawyer trademark it. A great example of showing you how a copyright lawyer trademark works would be by looking at the recent celebrities that bought the trademarks to their children’s names so no one can cash in on their names. Believe it or not even a copyright lawyer can have a trademark, that’s right they may have their own site or logo on a business card. In this case they’ve probably done all that fancy paperwork that you are getting started to do, which means they’ll have first hand knowledge when it comes time to help you out. This should actually make you feel a lot more comfortable than dealing with a lawyer that just knows the job; this one actually has experience that will help you. Know what you want to be yours and how long you want it; if it is something that you just can’t live without or you know will be worth something someday you may want to hire a copyright lawyer to trademark it. This way it is always yours and you never have to worry about someone else using it, they will always have to have your permission. Not to mention if they ever try suing you for using it you can always prove that you are the owner. Protect your stuff by getting a copyright lawyer trademark all things that matter.