Copyright Infringement and its Consequences

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The author or creator of every original work that is tangible in nature has every right over his project. If this work is reproduced, altered, exhibited, broadcasted or made public in other way without the consent of the owner, it is considered violation of the legal and moral rights of the author. It is best to register your work with the United States Copyright Office which asserts the owner’s rights under the Copyright Act and makes it public without revealing the actual identity of the author or the detailed content of the project. But authorization discourages plagiarism to some extent.

If a case of infringement of copyright occurs, an encroachment application must be filed with the federal court. The judge can order a permanent prohibition on the offending person or entity otherwise if the infringement case is a complicated one and requires time, a temporary injunction is ordered by the court to keep away any further cases of corruption till the decision is pending.

At any point in an infringement case, the contents of the alleged work can be seized by the court. If the court gets proof of the infringement, all the illegal copies are seized by the Law Enforcement Agents and then destroyed. The original work is also kept in custody which is liable of unlawful reproduction.

If the copyright holder has registered his work with the United States Copyright Office prior to the infringement, he can claim charges for lost sales and profit due to plagiarism. Legal fines can also be recovered ranging from $250 to $150,000. This amount can also be bigger depending on the circumstances and popularity of the violated work

Plagiarism is also when an author’s work is reproduced for profit. If the project that has been copied had a worth around or more than one thousand dollars, the guilty is awarded a punishment of one year in jail along with the payment of fine decided upon by the court. If the infringed work had a worth of more than two thousand five hundred dollars, the guilty is sent to jail for five years and fine, decided by the court is paid.

Copyright violation of bigger projects is definitely a far greater issue than that of smaller and less popular projects, but morally it is wrong both ways. If the problem is not snubbed right at the beginning, it creates greater disasters with the passage of time.