Nuts & Bolts of Internet Copyright Law: Part 1

In this episode, I discuss copyright infringement, specifically the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which applies to the internet. We’ll talk about what it is, how to use it to your benefit if someone has stolen your content, and how to protect your website if you allows users to post comments on it. Let’s begin with a bread and butter definition of copyright infringement. Copyright infringement is the use of works protected by copyright law without permission, infringing certain exclusive rights granted to the copyright holder, such as the right to reproduce, distribute, display or perform the protected work, or to make derivative works. As far as terminology goes, “infringing” is used instead of “stealing” or “pirating” in the statute. The idea behind copyright infringement is simple: If you create some work, you hold the rights publish and distribute that work. The copyright holder is typically the work's creator, or a publisher or other business to whom copyright has been assi