What is Copyright Infringement?

A Copyright Infringement is the use of music, artwork, paintings etc that could be any protected work by the copyright law without the permission. Use of these work without permission infringes the copyright owner’s exclusive right to reproduce, distribute, perform, and make derivative work of original work.

The steps you should take when sending a copyright infringement notice are following:

  1. Outline the Information about the infringement: A Copyrighted Infringement notice should predict the copyrighted work that has been infringed upon by another party. At a minimum, the letter should identify the work that is infringing your copyrighted work. The goal is to make the work known and straightforward as you can and to narrow down possible list of parties who could have infringed the copyrighted work. You could also include a clear statement that the information is accurate and that you have all the possession of the copyrighted work. It is also good to mention the statement that you do believe in good faith of the people who committed the infringement.
  2. Send a notice using the third party of the service: Online the condition is more simplified. Most sites that are using the copyrighted work used without permission such as Youtube, DeviantArt, have built a functionality that allows submitting a copyrighted claim. Therefore the process of sending claims is simplified in these situations. But you should use the same elements of a traditional copyright infringement notice to make the claim as complete and clear-cut.
  3. Keep Good Records: You should make every effort to ensure that your claim can be backed up with an evidence. The most important thing is to be able to prove that your work was made before that work which is created without your permission.
  4. Alternative Option: DMCA takes down notice. Notifying the offended party isn’t the only way to enforce your right. Since the Digital Millenium Copyright Act was passed it is also possible to contact web hosts directly to have protected material removed. In general these letters follow the same guidelines as a Copyright Infringement Notice but must also be signed, include a statement that you believe in “good faith” that the use of protected materials is unauthorized, and a statement that you, under penalty of perjury, guarantee that the information provided is accurate and you are the owner of the copyright or are authorized to act on the owner’s behalf.

Don’t ignore the Copyright Infringement Notice

Generally ignoring the notification, and/or cease and desist letter is a bad idea. While it might be tempting to ignore the letter, take down the image, and hope the problem goes away, ignoring a copyright demand letter will cause the copyright holder to spend more resources to protect their copyright. When the copyright holder has to expend additional resources, this can potentially increase the number of damages that the copyright holder can seek to have enforced against you or your company.

Don’t immediately call the Copyright Holder or Copyright holder’s Lawyer

In the heat of the moment, you will want to call the copyright holder or the copyright holder’s lawyer to explain their side of the story. While clients often have the best of intentions when doing this (Hey! They’re people – they must make mistakes too), it could potentially give the opposing side additional information that they could use in a case against you.