Copyright Issues

Copyright Issues

According to Legal Aid New South Wales (n.d.), copyright is the legal term to describe a person's ownership of their creative "works". Anything that is an original piece of writing, drama, music or art work is protected by copyright laws. Copyright protects the way an idea is creatively expressed, not the basic idea itself. A work is copyrighted when it is reproduced and the person who created the work sets a copyright designation on it (Murray, n.d.). A copyright may also be secured by registering it, but copyright protection does not depend on registration.

Social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Pinterest, allow online posting of material that may be copyrighted. Social networking Web sites can be hotbeds for copyright violations. The owner of a copyright has the exclusive right to do and authorize any of the following: reproduce the work, prepare derivative works, distribute copies of the work, perform the work publicly, and display the work publicly (Manishin, 2013). In the event that any one of a copyright owner’s rights is infringed, the law provides for criminal sanctions and civil liability against the direct infringer.

One of the examples of copyright in social networking is Viacom and Youtube copyright infringement’s case. According to Ahrens (2007), Viacom brought a lawsuit against YouTube in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York for copyright infringement. Viacom, which is asking for $1 billion in damages, claims that a large portion of the videos displayed on YouTube are copyrighted materials. Of particular concern to Viacom—parent of MTV and Comedy Central, among other media outlets—is the public performance, display, and reproduction of approximately 150,000 allegedly infringing video clips on the YouTube Web site. Specifically, Viacom has alleged that YouTube has knowingly engaged in, promoted, and induced infringement for the purpose of profiting from the illegal conduct of others. In determining the outcome of this case, the court will decide on the application of secondary liability for copyright infringement and the protections of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) as they apply to social networking Web sites.

Recommendations

Copyright law is being stretched to its limits in order to get the best way to protect copyright holders as well as Internet Web sites that merely host information. Thus, a Web site operator should take extra precautions to ensure protection under the safe harbor provisions of the DMCA. To accomplish this, social network operators should draft an End-User Agreement (EULA) that accomplishes dual purposes. The first purpose is to prevent direct infringement of users, whereas the second purpose is to take appropriate measures upon discovery of infringement. To prevent direct infringement, operators should warn users of possible civil and criminal consequences of uploading copyrighted material.