What constitutes a copyright infringement?

What constitutes a copyright infringement? Providing the link to copyrighted content is not an infringement. The infringement comes from the use of copyrighted material, content, without permission to use that content. To determine the actual infringement through linking, there must be an understanding of the flow of the copyrighted content. Consider how many time content can be copied through links in the Internet environment. The first copy is copy for storage on the server, backups, and distributed servers as that content works its way around the Internet. Pinpointing the infringement requires “clarity of ownership” (LC)

In the academic environments and individual use of copyrighted material may not be considered an infringement when:

·         Permission of use is granted.

·         There is no direct attributable financial benefit.

Software can be a more nebulous area to detect infringement. Segments of software embedded in other software are nearly impossible to uncover. Protection does not cover the idea or concept, as well as commonly used elements such as ‘save’ or ‘copy’.  Interfaces and internal formats are also not protected. Software, the source and the binary codes are protected. In evolving economic models, such as ‘freemiums’, (Chris Anderson, Free, 2009), software publishers can make more profit by giving away the basic software and charging for documentation and add-on that enhance the product.

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