Assignment brief 2: Task 1 - Understanding Copyright

Understanding Copyright

Copyright laws are in place to prevent people from 'stealing' intellectual (other peoples ideas/work) property. Also copyright is there to prevent the re-posting music videos. It also prevents sharing without permission on sites such as Youtube and Vimeo. Also copyright comes into 'play' when people are re-using material that they don't have permission to, also if they make a new version of the music video then copyright laws will also be broken because they do not have the right to use the music.

A way of over coming copyright laws are if you give credit to the artist who made the original version and music video of the song. Also you could seek permission from the artist by contacting them. You could contact them by calling them, e-mailing them and using twitter. Once you have contacted them you will have to explain to them what your intentions are and your reason for wanting to use their music.

Copyright was first introduced in the UK in 1709. It came from a common concept called the Statute of Anne. The law was passed into a statutory (require, permitted or enacted by statute) law in 1911. It was later amended in 1988 as an Act of Parliament. Because of the law being amended more things came under the copyright laws so people had to be more careful about what people do with other peoples music.

If you infringe someone else's copyright, you may be liable for monetary damages. The statute allows the copyright owner to recover not only actual losses (for example lost sales revenue), but also any profits of the infringer, as long as no monetary amount is counted twice. If actual damages and profits are small or hard to prove, the copyright holder may recover statutory damages of up to $10,000 per week infringed, or up to $50,000 per work infringed will-fully.

An example of celebrities breaching copyright laws is guitarist Joe Satriani tried suing the bad Coldplay because he believed that their song 'Viva la Vida' contained "substantial, original portions" of his 2004 instrumental 'If I Could Fly'.

You can usually tell when things are protected by copyright because they will usually have evidence in a form of writing that will explain that it is protected. Also if it is a music video or picture it will have a 'R' in a circle to show that it is protected.