What happens if copyright is breached

Copyright in SMEs. Lawful Reuse. Creative Process. Going for a Song. Getting Permission. Legal Access. News Reporting. Private Copying. Orphan Works. The Game is On! Episode 1.

Share Tweet. Related Infringement News Posts New four-year schools licence negotiated A message from the CEO, Adam Suckling Dear Members, I wrote to you at the end of last year about the issues around negotiating new agreements, our disputes before the Copyright Tribunal, and our investment in new systems and services to better serve members. We participated in mediation on Wednesday 20 June but were regrettably […] Read More. What are the potential consequences?

Copyright infringement is a serious problem. Businesses looking to operate professionally and avoid potentially costly lawsuits must take care not to infringe other parties' copyrights. But what are the consequences if copyright infringement does occur? As with many legal questions, the answer is "it depends"; in this case, mostly on the nature of the infringement. Copyright infringement occurs when copyrighted material is used in certain ways without the permission of the owner.

The purpose of copyright law is to give the owner of the material certain rights around its use, most principally the right to copy and reproduce that work for whatever reason. If one party copies a substantial part of material owned by another without the copyright holder's permission, that will often constitute an infringement.

However, what constitutes 'substantial' is something that's determined by courts if legal proceedings are launched, so it's not always clear in the initial instance whether an infringement has occurred. Take care not to use copyrighted material in your business without permission from the rights holder. Moral rights are enforced as well, which cover an author's right to be identified as the author of a work—called the right of attribution.

Also, authors look to prevent changes or distortions of their work—called the right of integrity. The growing importance of the Internet has created new obstacles for copyright holders. For example, the music industry was caught off guard by the development of online music sharing websites such as Napster.

Napster was an online music website that allowed peer-to-peer sharing of music files through their network. Customers would share or distribute music of various artists for free.

Record companies within the music industry sued Napster for copyright infringement to protect their intellectual property and won their case. Napster was found in violation of copyright laws because, in part, the company knew of the widespread distribution and did not do enough to stop it. Also, the music was copied and used by customers, which was financially harmful to record companies and the sale of their music. Napster was also found to have financially benefitted at the expense of record companies by allowing the copy and distribution of music.

Companies seeking targets for copyright infringement claims can also go after the companies providing the files, but could also seek damages from internet service providers ISPs as well as individual users. Copyright Office. Accessed June 11, Business Essentials. Your Privacy Rights. To change or withdraw your consent choices for Investopedia. At any time, you can update your settings through the "EU Privacy" link at the bottom of any page.

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