Legal Definitions - copyright infringement

Copyright infringement occurs when someone uses, reproduces, distributes, performs, or displays a copyrighted work without the permission of the copyright holder, and without a legal justification (such as fair use or other statutory exceptions). Copyright law grants creators exclusive rights over their original works of authorship, which can include literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works. When these exclusive rights are violated, it constitutes infringement.

Here are some examples to illustrate copyright infringement:

• Unauthorized Use of Software: A small business purchases a single license for a popular accounting software program. Instead of buying additional licenses, the owner installs the software on five different computers used by various employees in the office, despite the license agreement clearly stating it is for a single user or device. This action constitutes copyright infringement because the business is making unauthorized reproductions and distributions of the copyrighted software beyond the scope of the license granted by the software developer.

• Reprinting a Book Chapter: A university professor decides to compile a course reader for their students by scanning and printing an entire chapter from a recently published textbook and distributing it to their class, without obtaining permission from the textbook's publisher. This is copyright infringement because the professor is reproducing and distributing a significant portion of a copyrighted literary work without authorization, violating the publisher's exclusive rights.

• Using Stock Photography Without a License: An independent blogger finds an attractive photograph of a city skyline on a stock photo website. Instead of purchasing a license for the image, they download it and use it as the main header image for their blog posts for several months. This is copyright infringement because the blogger is publicly displaying and reproducing the photographer's original work without obtaining the necessary rights or permission, thereby infringing on the photographer's exclusive rights to control the use of their image.