Know the Types of Copyright Infringement

The breach of copyright is a common threat on the Internet. On an average, over five thousand cases of copyright infringement happen every year, and most of them are texts, articles and blogs copied from the Web. Today it is important to have some knowledge about copyright and how it is breached. This helps you to prevent yourself and others from committing infringement and keeps you away from serious consequences. In order to stay away from it, you should have clear knowledge about copyright infringement and different types of copyright infringement, which you might commonly encounter.

What Constitutes a Copyright Infringement? 

In order to understand infringement of copyrights, one needs to understand what a copyright is, and what are the things it covers. Copyright is an intangible asset that marks the ownership of particular work, which may be a piece of art, music, literature, or any other work a person has created. It must also be noted that for the copyright to apply, the work must be something significant, and has to be originally created by that person who is applying for a copyright. In other words, content duplication is prohibited, and the work must have a significant value to the owner.

Copyright infringement, as the term implies, is an act of using copyrighted content for one’s own benefit, without any authorization from the actual owner. In simpler terms, it is the act of stealing another person’s work for a profit or fame. Copyright infringement is a very common theme on the Internet. A simple example for copyright infringement is plagiarism, which can be countered by copyright checker. When you plagiarize a text, you essentially use a person’s content without his or her permission. While the general concept of copyright infringement is quite simple, there are a few types of infringement that you often come across.

Types of Copyright Infringement

The general classification of infringement is:

1. Primary Copyright Infringement

2. Secondary Copyright Infringement

1. Primary Copyright Infringement

The primary copyright infringement is also called direct infringement, and it involves an act of copying and publishing content for one’s own gain, regardless of whether the person had the intention or not. Here, the person is directly involved in the act of completely or partially copying the content. If the infringer has only copied the content partially, it is the owner’s responsibility to prove the following:

• Substantial Taking: As we have established above, the copyright infringement law applies only if the infringer has copied a substantial portion of the work. For example, the owner cannot sue a person for copying three words from a five-hundred-word article.
• Casual Connection: This is the most important thing that the owner has to prove for his or her claim to be approved by the law. There must be some significant similarities between the owner’s work, as well as the infringer’s work. If there are certain errors in spelling and grammatical or sentence structure, it will act as a proof and make things easy for the copyright owner.

If you have enough proof, and if the above two conditions are met you can easily claim your copyright.

2. Secondary Copyright Infringement

Copyright infringement also applies for people who are not directly involved in copying the content. Some cases of secondary infringement are:

• When a person buys or sells copyrighted content without a valid permission or authorization
• Providing funds or material for infringement activities
• Allowing activities that attract copyright infringement in your property. However, this only applies if the owner of the property has the knowledge about it, otherwise he is not held accountable for copyright infringement.

These are a few types of copyright infringement that are very common. Knowing about them will help you identify and stay away from the breach of copyright at all times.