Welcome to neonmonster.com
|
Music copyright infringement
How Does Music Copyright Infringement Affect Me?
Music copyright infringement happens all around us every day, by both well meaning people downloading music from their favorite social networking site to the guy who?s reselling MP3s. To be certain, most people who commit music copyright infringement don?t realize what?s going on, and are in turn doing something very illegal and prosecutable in the United States.
Copyright Infringement, as defined by Wikipedia.org states: ?Copyright infringement (or copyright violation) is the unauthorized use of material that is protected by intellectual property rights law particularly the copyright in a manner that violates one of the original copyright owner's exclusive rights, such as the right to reproduce or perform the copyrighted work, or to make derivative works that build upon it. The slang term bootleg (derived from the use of the shank of a boot for the purposes of smuggling) is often used to describe illicitly copied material.?
We?ve all heard of ?bootleg? recordings ? usually audio recordings taken from concerts and sold on home made cassettes or CDs and distributed (sometimes out of the trunk of a car) to anyone that will buy. Bootleg recordings have changed, however, as music copyright infringement has branched into video recordings. Music copyright infringement has exploded with the advent of the internet, and now people from all over the world are sharing every type of imaginable file ? from eBooks to audio to music ? and small label artists began feeling the pinch years ago.
However, many new and older artists are beginning to see the beauty of the internet, and are offering their music for sale track-by-track on iTunes and other MP3 sales websites, as well as through their own band websites and MySpace pages. The internet has exploded in the possibilities it?s given up and coming musicians to become visible, while at the same time drastically increasing the number of music copyright infringement cases ? some of which were against innocent people who just weren?t informed.
Music copyright infringement cases have helped to create organizations that protect the fair use of an item, such as a song. Organizations such as CreativeCommons.com and the Electronic Frontier Foundation help individuals to know their rights under copyright acts.
While there are organizations that help you understand your rights as a purchaser of copyright use, there are organizations that want to limit the ways in which you use the products you buy. It is rumored, for example, that record distribution and production companies want to limit the ways in which you use the music you buy ? they don?t want you to put it on your computer or make a Mix Tape or CD from it ? for fear of ?sharing.?
It seems to me, however, when music publishers and distribution companies limit uses like this, they?re opening up a tidal wave of music copyright infringement cases. By limiting the use of purchased material, the companies are alienating their client base and pushing all their sales away from physical products and toward electronic ones ? which are much harder to control.
A way in which these companies tried to limit the uses was by creating a DRM program, which severely limited the where a CD could be played (on one computer, for instance). And, in one drastic measure, Sony placed a DRM program on all their CDs in the Winter of 2005, and severely crippled several networks when their ?program? was actually malware that seriously crippled network security.
As you can see, music copyright infringement is something that is currently being fought between end users and music production and distribution companies. In this new century, we must find a way to retain copyright, and allow the customers to use the products they buy in a meaningful way, or otherwise the market will shift and the industry as we know it will be abandoned.
US Copyright Lawyer What can a US Copyright Lawyer Do for You that Others Can?t? First a US copyright lawyer can help anyone that is in the United States, they know the laws of the land and the best ways to fight them. A US Copyright Lawyer is here to protect you. That?s right I said YOU, not the neighbor down the road, or someone that lives in the next country but YOU. A US copyright lawyer is there to help you actually file a copyright, advise you and to help you get back what was once yours and sue someone. If you are an American or someone currently living in the United States you will be able to hire a US lawyer, however if you reside out of the states there may be restrictions. In the internet world copyright issues are becoming a big thing and having a US Copyright lawyer behind you can definitely help if you need to fight against someone stealing your work. Copyright lawyers must stay current in all the recent rulings dealing with copyright issues, which means they know their job. Don?t just stick with a lawyer you already had because you?ve used them before. They may have been great at your car accident or your divorce but for copyright issues, you need a lawyer that deals with them. A US copyright attorney can also help you in retrieving money even if you never filed the copyright until after it was stolen or online. This can get a bit tricky when it comes time to prove it though, however if you have a good lawyer this shouldn?t be a problem. A US copyright lawyer will be able to help you copyright any work that you may have, it does cost $20 to file a paper to get the copyright on your work. This does not mean that there is a one time fee of $20 and all your work is safe, actually you must do this with all your work. You are paying per piece, but in the long run if you need to sue someone for using your content they can end up paying $35,000. A US copyright lawyer can help you with this if you live in the United States and the case happened in the states, technically they could help even if it happened internationally but things get a bit more expensive when this happens. Your US copyright lawyer may have already dealt with people stealing content, or maybe celebrity pictures. Recently a big name celebrity had her pictures leaked on the internet, she sued the people that were spreading them and it suddenly stopped. All those websites that had the pictures on them were asked politely to take them down since they were copyrighted and they were gone. That?s what a good US copyright lawyer will do; he/she will be able to prove their case because they know the law. They will have to show proof of when something was taken, said, or documented. In the case of pictures, she was able to show that she had the proofs and that there was no agreement for anyone to use them. Copyright laws have been changing since 1976; however it changes as our technology advances. Lawyers and judges know our needs and are learning every day how to protect them and in order to do that laws are passed and the copyright laws are updated. Granted laws may be different in other countries but the chances are if it happens on US soil, the best representative would be a US copyright lawyer because they have been studying ever since law school. Find Free Stuff Online by Visiting the FreeStuffOnline Website Whatever it is somebody is searching for, he might be able to find it on the FreeStuffOnline website. The FreeStuffOnline website is a page that offers links to other pages that have products that are free off charge available to anybody. Pages like this one collect links and web addresses that offer free products and then publish it as a great resource to the broader public. The links offered by FreeStuffOnline leads to a variety of different topics and offers and there might be just what someone one is looking for. The web page offers categories such as educational freebies, which includes Study notes, Encyclopedias, books and more. Family freebies have categories for babies, children and parents. For the computer world there are free products such as free antivirus software, freeware programs, games and graphics, shareware, music and screensavers. For the cell phone fanatic, there are links to free cell phone ring tones and short message programs. A seasonal freebie category holds anything that relates to the major holidays in the United States, such as Christmas, Halloween, Easter and more. The category ?internet? offers links to free web hosting pages, e-mail providers and much more. The way such pages work is by the various masters that take care of adding and removing links. As a matter of fact, anyone can add freebie links to the page. This is one of their most important tools to keep such a freebie page working. Anyone who finds a good freebie that is not a fraudulent page should go to the FreeStuffOnline web page and add the link. Other people will benefit from the link just as much as the person that added it. To keep such sites possible the effort of anyone that is looking for freebies is necessary. There are many organizations out there that specialize in providing help for the ones that do not have a wealthy family to pay for all of it. Organizations that specialize in literature offer PDF files of books of world famous authors such as Shakespeare, books that anybody should have the chance to read. Other pages specialize in children?s songs. Downloadable MP3s, legal downloads of these songs are available to make music an integral part of young children?s lives. Even for the new craze of sharing pictures, files and other important date there are links that guide the user to pages that will offer such services for free. Sharing pictures with loved ones should be easy and free and available to anybody. Whether it is the grandparent that lives hundred of miles away or a father that serves in the army, these pages offer the opportunity to anyone to share important data such as pictures over the distance. Using an online file sharing web page also has the advantage of speed over regular mail. Until the pictures are sent to their destination by mail, it can take days, but on the Internet the process takes a few seconds and the person at the other PC can see the data almost instantly. When these files are shared there is always the possibility to have the pictures printed at one of the photo stores and the person will still be able to hold printed pictures in their hands. One other important fact to know about these free online pages like FreeStuffOnline is that whenever you come onto a link that is not working, let them know, only by people telling the web master that the link is not working it can be removed. Helping to maintain the page by alarming for broken links can reduce the frustration to other that was trying to check out the link. |