How Is Copyright Infringed?

• Author: Lesley Ellen Harris
• Profession: Lawyer, author, and educator
• Pages: 213-224

213

CHAPTER 12

How Is Copyright Infringed?

All the things I really like to do are either illegal, immoral, or fattening.

—Alexander Woollcott (1887–1943), in Wit ’s End (1973)

by R.E. Drennan

What Is an Infringement of Copyright?

Violation of copyright means a breach of the copyright law. Infringement

is the term used in the Copyright Act to denote this violation.

Direct infringement occurs where a right in the Act is directly

infringed, and indirect infringement occurs through dealings with

infringing copies. These dealings must normally be of a commercial

nature.

To fully understand this chapter, you should read Chapter 9, “Rights

Protected by Copyright,” as well as Chapter 10, “Limitation on Rights.”

Chapter 13 discusses the remedies for the infringement of copyright.

Terms Used to Describe Infringements

of Copyright

Infringement or violation of copyright law are common terms to describe

unauthorized uses of copyright-protected works.There are a number of

other terms the public uses in connection with copyright infringement

or related activities.These terms include plagiarism, piracy, bootlegging,

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