What are the major criticisms of the copyright laws in the US? As with any complicated statute, copyright laws burden some groups and help other groups. There are four common criticisms of US copyright laws that are applicable and relevant to the general public:. Using this reasoning, if copyright laws are truly there to benefit the public, they should be as flexible and fluid as possible. People who share this view take offense to the fact that lawmakers make copyright laws more stringent to support the financial interests of corporations at the expense of the public, whom the laws were originally created to protect.
For example, the Walt Disney Company was integral in lobbying for the extension of copyright terms to protect their ability to control and make money off of characters like Mickey Mouse who were created in the first half of the 20th Century. Understandably, the people who have the strongest interests in lobbying lawmakers to change copyright laws are the companies that will make more profit if their works are protected in perpetuity.
Jack Valenti, the President of the MPAA the lobbying organization for the film industry , even proposed that copyrights should be extended to last forever less one day. The reality is that it reflects the understanding of ordinary people, too. The ordinary person believes, as Disney's Michael Eisner does, that Mickey Mouse should be Disney's for time immemorial. The ordinary person doesn't even notice the irony of perpetual protection for Disney for Mickey, while Disney turns out Hunchback of Notre Dame to the horror of the Victor Hugo estate , or Pocahontas, or any number of stories that it can use to make new work.
The main defense to copyright infringement is fair use. But it is just that: a defense. Both the uncertainty of the result at trial and the expense of going to trial gives large companies significant advantages over the alleged infringer. This may result in the alleged infringer settling and stopping her use, even though her use may be legal.
The complexity of the law and the high cost of hiring a lawyer to even evaluate a case makes it prohibitive to bring formal legal action against someone. If one chooses not to litigate, one can attempt to enforce their rights through A cease-and-desist letters, B DMCA takedown notices, or C private dispute resolution mechanisms. A cease-and-desist letter is a notice sent by an attorney that informs a potential offender of what he or she is doing that constitutes infringement, and advises them to stop doing it or else face some manner of legal action.
A person receiving this letter may comply, but in some cases the recipient may seek legal counsel if he or she feels that no infringement is actually taking place.
A DMCA notice which stands for Digital Millennium Copyright Act is a type of cease-and-desist letter sent by either copyright holders or agents representing them to online service providers like web hosting companies or Facebook that informs them that one of their clients is committing copyright infringement. The company that is hosting infringing content is legally required to take down the offending content and contact their client to inform the party whose content was taken down of the notice.
How would the court determine your monetary damages in this situation? Money damages in copyright infringement actions are commonly awarded under some combination of three legal theories:.
Like all litigation, copyright litigation is both time-consuming and expensive. Before you decide to find a copyright attorney and file a lawsuit, it's helpful to understand these three categories of damages, so that you can evaluate your potential recovery.
Sometimes known as compensatory damages, "actual damages" consist of the dollar amount of any demonstrable loss the copyright owner suffered as a result of the infringing activity. This loss may be from lost sales, lost licensing revenue, or any other provable financial loss directly attributable to the infringement. Federal law 17 U. In establishing the infringer's profits, the copyright owner is required to present proof only of the infringer's gross revenue, and the infringer is required to prove his or her deductible expenses and the elements of profit attributable to factors other than the copyrighted work.
In the example above, your actual damages would be your lost revenue as a result of the infringer taking your painting and reproducing it on T-shirts. These calculations are imperfect, of course; you could argue that your sales decreased by a certain percentage during the period that the infringer was selling the T-shirts, though such causation is not always clear. Usually, plaintiffs in infringement actions offer expert testimony to establish their actual financial damages to the court.
This second form of copyright damages consists of any money the infringer earned as a result of the infringement. These damages are awarded only if they exceed the amount of profits lost by the copyright owner actual damages as a result of the infringement. For example, imagine that a book on self-defense, authored by Susan, contains a practical chapter on how to purchase and care for a handgun.
Rachel also writes a book on self-defense and substantially "borrows" from Susan's chapter on handguns without first obtaining her permission. Rachel has infringed Susan's copyright over her original writing. A court could award Susan actual damages if Susan proves that she lost sales of her book because people bought Rachel's book instead, at least in part because of the handgun chapter.
Alternatively, if Susan has licensed chapters of her books to other authors, the amount she typically receives for such licensing could be her actual damages. In addition, the court could award Susan any profits that Rachel realized from the infringement to the extent such profits exceeded the amount of Susan's lost profits.
In many copyright cases, both actual damages and profits are difficult to prove. If you are a journalist or just an interested citizen who has questions about the two sides of the copyright policy debate, feel free to contact New Media Rights via our contact form to find out whether you qualify for free or reduced fee legal services.
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