Love - Law-Copyrights - Essay Example

Copyrights Affiliation: Introduction Copyright infringement laws were formed and enforced in a bid to stop copyrighting of software and digital media. This was in a bid to ensure that the owners of those software and digital media make a profit from their work. This copyright infringement laws provide legal actions that will be taken if copyright infringement occurs including the damages to pay (Smith 2007).In the question provided, the first scenario where Maruta burns copies of movies in blank DVDs is an infringement of the copyright laws and can be charged.

This is according to the Copyright Act of 1976 which prohibits making of unauthorized tangible copies of works. The law was later reviewed to include even works found in the cyberspace (Smith 2007). This law can therefore be used to charge Maruta.If Maruta is found guilty of copyright infringement, he may have to pay damages of over $250,000. This is the minimum damages paid in case the law against copyrighting is infringed. This may however vary depending on the duration of copyright and the average number of copies sold.

If they are found to be high, then the damages will increase and may go up to millions of dollars to be paid to the owner of the copyrighted material.The second scenario cannot go to court and be charged with copyright infringement since he used the copied material to teach students. This is allowed in the Copyright Act section 106 which allows fair use of the copyrighted material in different situations and teaching is one of the situations. This therefore means that Maruta in this scenario was not acting against the law and hence cannot be charged or even be required to pay damages.

The increase in internet connectivity and cyberspace expansion has led to an increase in the copyright infringement. Many cases are being presented in courts of copyright infringement. This has also led to a lot of money being spent by guilty individuals to pay the literary works owners’ damages for the infringement. One such case took place in Minneapolis in June 2009. This was a case where the defendant Jammie Thomas-Rasset was found guilty on copyright infringement by the court for illegally sharing over 1700 songs all which amounted to over $80,000 (Sandoval June, 2009).

The case was filed by the Recording Industry Association of America in 2007 for the 1700 songs copyrighted. They later however cut down that number to only 24 songs. The court ordered Jammie to pay damages to the recording company amounting to $1.92 million. This was because of the strict copyright infringement laws and especially if a very high number of copyrights were produced and sold.The above verdict by the court was seen as a relief to the literary works associations and organizations which suffer millions of dollars when their work is copyrighted and not bought as original.

They also suffer when they try to acquire justice in courts. This case and others are hoped to serve as examples of what can happen to individuals who copyright and sell the copies at a cheaper price than the original work.ConclusionThe above is just one of the numerous cases being strict on the defendants of copyright infringements. It is hoped that with such actions being taken regularly, the copyrighting will seize and the authors and actors of the literary works protected under the copyrights Act will start enjoying the fruits of their labor fully.

ReferencesSandoval, G. (June, 2009). “Court orders Jammie Thomas to pay RIAA $1.92 million.” CNET News. Retrieved from http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10268199-93.htmlSmith, G. (2007). Internet law and regulation. California: Sweet & Maxwell.