Digital Millennium Copyright Act

Federal copyright law protects the author of intellectual works. This copyright ensures that only the author or the author's assignees have the legal authority to copy, distribute, create derivative works, or perform or exhibit protected works. These rights extend to the Internet and were supplemented by additional laws when Congress passed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (DMCA).

Copyright Violations

You could violate federal copyright law if:

• Somebody emails copyrighted material to you and, in turn, you forward it to one or more friends.
• You make an MP3 copy of a song from a CD that you bought (purchasers are expressly permitted to do so) but subsequently make the MP3 file(s) available on the Internet using a file-sharing network.
• You join a file-sharing network and download unauthorized copies of copyrighted material you want from the computers of other network members.
• To gain access to copyrighted material on the computers of other network members, you pay a fee to join a file-sharing network that is not authorized to distribute or make copies of the copyrighted material. You then download unauthorized material.
• You transfer copyrighted material using an instant messaging service.
• You have a computer with a CD burner that you use to burn copies of music you have downloaded onto writable CDs which you then distribute to your friends.

There is a common misconception that you may duplicate and distribute copies of copyrighted materials so long as you do not sell the duplications. This is untrue. Copying and distributing someone else's work may violate an author's rights even when you are not selling the copies.

Violations to federal copyright law may carry heavy civil and criminal penalties. For example, civil penalties include damages and legal fees. The minimum fine is $750 per downloaded file. Criminal penalties, even for first-time offenders, can be stiff: up to $250,000 in fines and five years in prison.