What is the copyright law exactly? Can I copy anything (without making a profit) as long as I give credit? Do I need written permission? What does "fair use" entail? Thanks, Josh

All Answers To Questions

There are varying degrees of copyright protection. Read carefully the copyright that should accompany all materials you might wish to copy. Some do allow copying if used only for personal non-profit usage; some allow groups, such as choirs, to make multiple copies again with no profit limitations.

Copyright is a type of intellectual property where it gives the owner exclusive rights to regulating the use of their copyrighted material. Fair use is a doctrine in United States copyright law that allows limited use of copyrighted material without requiring permission from the rights holders, such as use for scholarship or review. It provides for the legal, non-licensed citation or incorporation of copyrighted material in another author's work under a four-factor balancing test. 1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes 2) the nature of the copyrighted work 3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole 4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work Unless allowed by the fair use doctrine, you cannot copy anything that is copyrighted unless you have permission from the owner. One such example of copyright infringement would major ongoing battle between music artists and P2P (Peer-to-peer) programs. Even though you give credit for the things you copy, you can still be charged with copyright infringement unless it meets the fair use doctrine. If you want to read more about previous case law, Sony Corp. v. Universal City Studios (The Betamax decision) and MGM v. Grokster are two great cases regarding the controversy over copyright infringement. The first case is about the creation of VCR’s and how “copying” a TV show for later viewing (time-shifting) would be considered fair-use. The second case is a more recent one regarding P2P networks such as Grokster, Streamcast (Morpheus), etc. The courts held that they can be liable for inducing copyright infringement.