Copyright law is based on legislation—but in many cases, copyright law alone is
not the final authority. Various other intellectual property and privacy laws can
overlap with copyright law, creating layers of legislation around one work.
In Click & Copyright’s 39-page eBook, Copyright Cases You Need to Know, we
take a detailed look at 26 specific cases that help illustrate various legal issues
that work along with copyrights:
Licensing
The owner of a copyright can license a work to another party, enabling others to
use the work while still retaining control of the copyright. Licenses can be implied
or explicit, and the terms of the license does not have to involve a transfer of
money in order to be legitimate and upheld by the courts. If the terms of the license
are not followed, the license can be terminated.
Copyrightability
Not all works are copyrightable; a copyrightable work is “an original work of authorship
reduced to a tangible form”—it is a new work, different at least in some way from
an existing work, with a known creator. Ideas are not copyrightable, nor are names
and short phrases, but with works fixed in a tangible medium, it only takes a small
amount of creativity for a work to be considered “original,” and therefore copyrightable.
Infringement
Another aspect of copyright law that is determined on a case-by-case basis, infringement
encompasses any unauthorized use of copyrighted material. While most people understand
that putting your own name on someone else’s work is considered copyright infringement,
in fact many infringement suits are based on subtler types of copyright infringement.
Fair Use
Using someone else’s copyrighted material without permission is usually considered
copyright infringement—except when it’s considered fair use. Generally, fair use
includes using a work for educational, journalistic, or critical purposes, but the
line between fair use and infringement can be blurry. While based on a checklist
of factors, fair use is relatively undefined and therefore can be legally risky
in practice.
Our eBook is easily accessible, written in common English without the confusing
legalese and clutter that can be difficult and frustrating to navigate through.
With Copyright Cases You Need to Know, you’ll be able to see how these four aspects
of copyright law have been interpreted in real court cases—some of which you may
be familiar with.
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