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Receiving Notice There are a number of ways that content providers and distributors contact users regarding alleged copyright infringement, and in understanding any of them, the key is to not panic. From here, you have a couple of options: File a Motion to Quash The Subpoena You can file a motion to quash in the court where the subpoena was issued that information should be included in the letter from your ISP.
Request a Protective Order From The Court You can request that the court that issued the subpoena grant you a protective order with respect to your personal information name, address, phone number, etc. Settlement Deadline Date Almost always, letters requesting settlement will have a date included by which the offer of settlement will expire. Should I Go Ahead and Settle? You should consult a knowledgable copyright infringement defense attorney if you have any questions about your settlement options and whether to proceed with settling, but you should also consider the following information: Benefits of Early Settlement: The Settlement Amount Will Be Smallest at The Earliest Stages of The Case.
Keeping Your Personal Identity Private. Consider the benefits of early settlement and do not neglect the settlement deadline. Consult with an attorney who is experienced in copyright infringement defense cases and discuss your options in settling or litigating a claim against you. Contact Us View More. Furthermore, you should never overlook any deadlines indicated in a demand letter.
Instead, thoroughly read what the accuser has to say. A typical demand letter will include evidence of copyright registration as well as the statutory damages for copyright infringement. While the dollar number for damages, which can stretch into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, may look intimidating, it is crucial to understand that this is likely not the amount in damages that will be sought in court.
Many demand letters attempt to inflate the dollar amount of damages using irrelevant claims that will likely be inadmissible in court. Facts are the foundation to building your case. Without all the facts, it is difficult to determine the next course of action.
Your investigation of the facts should allow you to answer the following questions:. Did my company use, profit from, or otherwise infringe on the copyrighted works listed in the demand letter? Where did the copyrighted material come from, or how was it obtained?
Does copyright still protect them? Did my company "knowingly" use the material in the manner alleged in the notification, or was it inadvertent? Does my company have a valid license or permission to use the material?
If a license or assent was obtained from the owner, find proof of the license or written authorization, and check the terms and conditions to make sure your usage complied. It will take an experienced business lawyer or copyright lawyer to determine the validity of any claim fully. However, only you can provide the facts and information your copyright lawyer needs to advise you on the best path forward.
While copyright protection is broad, not all works are entitled to copyright protection. If usage of the work or the work itself falls under the umbrella of one or many of these exceptions, you may have a valid defense. The most common defense many companies employ is to assert that the work itself is not covered by copyright protection. For example, copyright protection does not apply to works that are factual or common knowledge.
Or, perhaps, the copyright itself has expired, and the work in question is now in the public domain. Copyrights generally expire after 70 years, in the absence of a copyright renewal, after an author or creator's death. Many movies, books, and records from the first half of the 20th century are now available for anyone to use.
However, companies should not assume that older works are automatically copyright free. In , the US amended its copyright laws to extend protection to older works for an additional 20 years.
Other works, such as most old movies, have had their copyrights renewed and cannot be freely shared or distributed. Another commonly cited defense is fair use. Fair use is a legal doctrine designed to promote freedom of expression by allowing the unlicensed use of copyright-protected works in certain circumstances.
This may include commentary, parody, research, and education. Unfortunately, this is where the interpretation of the law comes into play. There is no surefire formula to predict whether or not your usage of a copyrighted work falls under the protection of fair use.
Instead, fair use lawsuits are typically decided on a case-by-case basis. Fair use allows for limited use of copyright-protected work without permission, such as for commentary including parody , research, and education. There is not a straightforward formula to determine whether your particular usage falls under fair use protection, which makes it difficult for non-lawyers to make that determination on their own.
If you have received permission to use a copyrighted work, and have used the work according to the terms and conditions agreed upon, you should have a valid defense.
By Richard Stim , Attorney. Under the Copyright Act of , creators like you are given certain exclusive rights to reproduce and sell your works. When these rights are infringed, you can sue the person who used your work without permission and, if successful, be awarded money damages.
In this way, copyright law can serve to compensate you for a third-party's wrongful infringement of your work. Let's imagine that you are an illustrator, and you make your living by selling and reprinting your artwork.
One day, you discover that someone has taken one of your original drawings and reproduced it on T-shirts and posters, which are being sold online, all without your permission. You are sufficiently upset, not to mention affected financially, that you file a lawsuit.
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.
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