Welcome to esiq.org
Definition of copyright infringement
Protect Yourself: Know the Definition of Copyright Infringement
As you’re creating something, you may wonder what copyright infringement actually is. It’s necessary, if you’re creating a work – albeit written, musical, videos, software or some other form – that you know the definition of copyright infringement. This issue is very complicated, and not very easily spelled out in plain English, so please make sure that if you’re ever unsure to contact a copyright lawyer immediately to ensure you’re using copyrights in a legal method appropriate to the medium.
As I mentioned earlier, a definition of copyright infringement is difficult, at best. Copyright infringement is defined by the jurisdiction – the United States of America has different copyright laws than the United Kingdom, or Australia, or Russia, or even China. Because of this fact, you should first, before anything else, check the laws in your jurisdiction (country, city & province) before using something that isn’t in the public domain.
For our definition of copyright infringement, the public domain is a place where works are that aren’t copyright-able. Works that aren’t copyright-able include ideas, works that aren’t eligible (150 years-old documents, or older – think Beethoven and Frankenstein), data that isn’t categorized in a creative way (this could be a database, such as a phone book or other publicly-accessible data), or items that the owners have specified creative commons copyrights.
As you can see, copyright law is rather complicated. Wikipedia.org gives us the definition of copyright infringement as: “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.”
Our definition of copyright infringement includes the works of creative commons. Creative commons is an organization that allows for the copyright author to determine the uses available for people who want to use their works – for such items as for audio, images, video, text, educational materials, and software. It allows for the copyright owner to allow people to use their works for non-commercial, commercial, no derivatives, share alike, or just by giving attribution. Creative Commons is a license granted by the copyright holder, and can be used in both online (electronic internet) works and offline works.
There are many places you can go to get a definition of copyright infringement. The most reliable definition of copyright infringement would be from your local copyright lawyer – they will know exactly what in your jurisdiction is legal or not, and how you can use other peoples’ works or protect your own.
The real definition of copyright infringement comes from your jurisdictions statutes. In the United States of America, our jurisdiction’s copyright laws are contained in Title 17 of the United States Code, §501 - §513. You can also find a definition of copyright infringement through such organizations such as the European Union or World Trade Organizations.
While s legal country or organizational definition of copyright infringement is hard for the layperson to understand, a copyright lawyer will help you to figure out what it is that your work needs to be protected against copyright infringement, or to protect yourself if you intend to use the work of another writer, director, or musician.
Positive Reasons Why Employee Turnover Can Be a Good Thing Employee turnover is the bane of many an organization. If you pick up any business paper, you will find headline after headline screaming about how much turnover is costing companies and how to keep your employees happy and on board to avoid the headaches and hassles of high turnover. The tide, however, is starting to turn. More and more business experts are stepping up and saying turnover doesn’t have to be the end of the world. In fact, in some cases, turnover can be the best thing that ever happened to your company. While some turnover is as bad as traditional wisdom assumes it is, other instances of turnover can be a real positive for your business. How can turnover possibly be a good thing? It all comes down to who is leaving the company, and why. Every office has its workers that are a drag on the business for one reason or another. Maybe the employee is dissatisfied with their job because they have been working it for too long and are overqualified, but they don’t have any room for advancement. Maybe an employee thinks that all of the decisions you are making about the business are the wrong ones and are constantly critical. Maybe the employee just has a personality conflict with the other people in the company and you and other works simply don’t like them very much. When these kinds of employees leave your company, it can be a shot of life into the business. Suddenly, everyone feels hopeful and re-energized because the negative energy in the air is gone. Negative vibes in the office can have a very damaging effect on the staff, and by extension, your business. When the person causing the bad feeling heads for the highway, they take with them all of the problems they created. Not only does the departure of an employee who was causing trouble in the office boost morale for the employees who are left behind because the bad feelings are gone, but it also boosts morale because it creates a job opening within company. If the person who left was a superior to many people in the office, there is now an instant opportunity for advancement. Your workers will step up with their games as they vie for the position, creating new business opportunities for you and generally keeping the spirit high in the office. If you decide to promote from within whenever possible after a turnover, your employees will work harder with the knowledge that they have a chance of moving up. These turnover positives hold true whether the employee in question quit the job or was fired. Who they were in the company and why they left are often much more important in determining whether the turnover was positive or negative. While losing an employee who is bringing everyone else down is a positive thing for your business, losing an employee who was an integral part of the corporation is another. Of course, there are costs involved in a turnover – you have to re-train an employee, and if you hire from outside of the company, you have the costs of advertising the job and the cost of the time spent interviewing candidates. If you are losing employee after employee, and the employees you are losing are the ones who were holding things together at the office, then you need to consider things you can do to reverse the turnover trend. Despite the potential negative side, turnover doesn’t have to be a bad thing for your company. If you manage it properly and if you are dropping employees who have been bringing your business down, turnover could be just the thing to turn your fortunes around. Non copyright music downloads Non Copyright Music Downloads Offer Growing Options for Music Collections Non copyright music downloads are growing in popularity and providing much needed exposure to many 'starving artists'. The truth of the matter is that many artists are turning to open source applications or creative commons licensing which allows them to provide their music to others while still retaining their ownership. It's a great idea that has actually worked quite well within the software community and is just now taking hold within the music industry. The idea of services such as this that offer non copyright music downloads to consumers for their listening pleasure is a relatively new concept that is beginning to take hold throughout the online music community. It is important to remember that while there are a few names that are recognizable and reputable in this particular industry there are also those that have less scruples than others and are more than willing to take advantage of music lovers for the fees they will pay and/or a credit card number and personal information. It is always wise to be aware of the information you are sharing online and to take great pains not to give information to companies that aren't absolutely secure and reputable. There are so many 'back room' websites that offer you unlimited music downloads for a yearly or lifetime subscription fee that sounds to good to be true. The problem is that many of these have a very limited selection of non copyright music downloads or quality music and only offer substandard and non mainstream music that no one has ever heard of or they offer music sharing that is not at all legal and puts you in a precarious legal position. The law holds you accountable for what you do rather than what you understand you are doing more often than not. Thinking you have non copyright music downloads is not the same as actually having them. So don't believe everything you see when it comes to defining legal and illegal music downloads. Find companies that have good reputations and don't go with cheaper services that are suspect and vague in their description of services. Non copyright music downloads or open source music is still relatively new. There are a lot of questions that leave a lot of room for misunderstandings, confusion, and consumers being taken advantage of. Educate yourself before subscribing to any of these services. Check out several do searches online to see if there is any negative feedback about these companies, read the feedback and see what people have to say. You can't believe all the negative you read but if many people complain about selection or quality it's quite likely that they don't have a good selection or great quality. Know what you want and find a service that will give it to you in non copyright music downloads. Another thing to know about non copyright music downloads is that many of these services are not offered free. There are expenses involved for the company, the hosting, website advertising, the fees they pay the artist, and any other number of fees-also keep in mind that this is a very time consuming business for them and they have overhead costs in addition to wanting to get paid as well. Remember this is a business for them. You should not expect less of open source music than you expect from other music that you pay a subscription in order to download. Non copyright music downloads are definitely the wave of the future and the technology had better be able to keep up with the demands of consumers. |