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TSOP: Chapter 2: What is Copyright Infringement?

Date post: 05-Mar-2016
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Timothy B. McCormack, attorney at law, and McCormack Intellectual Property, P.S. offer the “The Trade Secrets of Intellectual Property Series” to help lawyers and non-lawyers better understand copyright infringement claims. Timothy B. McCormack, attorney at law, in cooperation with McCormack Intellectual Property Law PS based in Seattle writes about copyright infringement cases; Timothy B. McCormack represents artists and photographers, including the world’s largest provider of stock images, Getty Images.
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Page 1: TSOP: Chapter 2: What is Copyright Infringement?
Page 2: TSOP: Chapter 2: What is Copyright Infringement?
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CHAPTER 2

PART 1: COPYRIGHTS MATTER!

The extreme reason to care about

copyright infringement is because, as an

American, life as you know it is potentially in

jeopardy.

Yes, I just said that. Let me say it again.

Copyright infringement may put “life as you

know it” in jeopardy.

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Don’t be a Pirate!

Are you an Internet Pirate?

There are many misconceptions about

copyright law. One of the most frightening

misconceptions is embodied in one simple

question:

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Who cares?

Many will say, “it’s not really my issue;

why should I care?” The answer to this

fundamental question is both simple and

complex. Here is my answer to that question.

Let’s try to set the copyright on Mickey

Mouse (and even that of Copyright Cow) aside

for a moment, let’s talk about Anderson Cooper

and Human Rights atrocities.

Then let’s talk about economics, taxes

and social services. We can get back to the

mouse and cow later.

In a modern Democracy we value

information. Information feeds our stock market,

it feeds what we buy as consumers (even what

we think we want in some cases) and who we

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vote for. The traditional media is part of the

dissemination of that information.

Blogs and other social media are also

growing in popularity for the same reason. I am

going to throw a wrench into the gears of

Democracy – into the economic incentives that

facilitate creating news reports and stories.

Basically, I am going to take Anderson

Cooper’s paycheck and shred it! The wrench is

copyright infringement. News reporters like

Anderson Cooper sometimes risk their lives to

bring us news from foreign lands – they report

on wars, human rights atrocities and good things

too.

This reporting can be used to help stop

crime, catch criminals and even shape social

justice. News reporters don’t work for free. Of

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course, news events can’t be owned. The pictures

documenting the news events, however, are

owned. The text of the reporter’s copy is

similarly owned.

It can be published and re-published. In essence,

the news story and the pictures (at least the

reporting of the story and the capturing of the

action) become the intellectual property of the

reporter and / or photographer (or the company

they work for).

Common FBI Warning

“may constitute a felony”

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Domestic Federal Law Enforcement

Government Anti-Piracy Seal

In today’s world, a news story without a

picture is almost not a news story. The pictures

of news events get sold. This is what helps pay

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for a freelance reporter’s airfare, travel expense,

child support, student loan payments and taxes.

Intellectual property is a property right in

some intangible like a copyright, a trademark, a

patent or a trade secret. In this case, the

intangible rights are “copyrights” which protect,

for example, texts, photographs, graphics,

computer source code, movies and music.

Since most reporters need to make a

living, they can’t be gallivanting about the world

with no hope of making money. In fact, you take

away the money, you take away the professional

reporter.

With that, you start to break down the

quality and flow of information at all levels.

Without freedom of information Democracy

stops working. The free markets even stop

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working. If you really think about it, life as we

know it is premised on the free flow of

information. When that information stops

flowing or is controlled by a government that

goes unchecked, you end up with unwanted wars

and in some cases human rights atrocities.

Germany’s Nazi regime illustrates what

can happen when the government controls

information and uses propaganda (unchecked

false information) to control and influence public

opinion.

There are dictators and oligarchies all

over the world, even today doing (or trying to

do) the same thing. While it is true that the

“citizen reporter” or blogger provides a new

source of possible reporting around the world,

without professional news reporters, to challenge

government propaganda and dig for “truth” the

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very foundations of life as we know it, begin to

crack!

How did this all start? Copyright infringe

-ment. Yes, the mouse and the cow count too.

When we don’t protect the labor of our

reporters, our artists, and even our doctors and

our lawyers, we erode the foundations of our

society. Even the “Founding Fathers” knew that

copyrights were important – they wrote into the

Constitution itself, the authority for Congress to

pass copyright and patent laws. We have

copyright laws.

Yet, it is almost ubiquitous that we break

them. When I speak at the University of

Washington, for example, I often informally poll

the students. Who has downloaded music

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without paying for it? Out of a classroom of fifty

students, only 5 don’t raise their hands.

The same is true of businesses that

download and use professional photographs and

images on their websites without paying for

them.

As a lawyer in Seattle, I deal with that

issue a lot. It is amazing how many companies

do this!

What is even more amazing is how many

think its no big deal. Many are not even

apologetic or ashamed. If you back your car into

the side of your neighbor’s minivan, you make

good on the damage.

You apologize and offer to cover the

repair or have your insurance cover the damage.

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Why is the same not true for copyright

infringement? Is it because you can touch the

damaged car but you can’t touch the damaged

copyright?

Yet, the photographer who didn’t get

their licensing fee for the use of the image goes

without food while the company that stole the

image laughs all the way to the bank.

This is not right or fair. In one recent

case, the Security Immigration and Customs

Enforcement (ICE) division of the Department of

Homeland Security began cracking down on

some of the mass-infringing websites that

facilitate widespread copyright infringement of

everything from music to photographs to comic

books.

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Based on an Order from a United States

District Court ICE seized the domain names and

posted the following:

ICE- Homeland Security Investigations

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The reported response of one of the

domain name owners was, “My domain has been

seized without any previous complaint or notice

from any court!”

My response to the owner’s comment is,

it’s about time! How dare this industrial pirate

ask for anything! He broke the law. A judge

issued an order after a lawful investigation.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the law. It protects

all of us but this industrial pirate’s reaction goes

too far.

What it comes down to is this: Don’t

steal my stuff. If you do steal my stuff, be

prepared to pay the consequences, whether that

be monetary damages or jail.

This mass infringer threatens society as

we know it. He ought to be ashamed of his

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actions not outraged by the collective efforts of

our law and government to curb crime.

As a society, if we continue to condone

intellectual property theft, at all levels, how long

will it be before we can no longer repair the

cracks in our fragile Democracy?

Before we have no insulation against

government propaganda and power that will

corrupt so absolutely that not even business can

function? Not long, people. Not long.

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ON-LINE REFERENCES

Trade Secrets Video

(What is Copyright

Infringement?)

Seattle PI

(Copyright Infringement

& Free Press)

***

http://thetradesecretsofintellectualproperty.com/

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