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Copyright Issues In Online Content

By Jonathan Bick
March 01, 2021

Internet content rights may arise automatically when original content is published online. Internet content authors and artists may enforce their rights by excluding others from copying their work or claiming it as their own pursuant to copyright laws. While said rights granted to Internet content authors and artists are copyright protected, that protection does not extend to facts or ideas, though it may protect the way those facts and ideas are expressed in the internet content.

Internet publication of content can determine the value of content and in conjunction with registration (17 U.S.C. §409(8)) which court has jurisdiction over content disputes. Additionally, publication of content online impacts the duration of copyright protection among other purposes, including optimizing creative and ownership rights and the availability of statutory damages and attorney fees. Thus, it is important to determine when Internet distribution constitutes publication.

The 1976 Copyright Act (17 U.S.C. §101) defines publication as the distribution or offering to distribute copies of a work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending, but a public performance or display of a work does not of itself constitute publication. The courts have filled in some gaps in the Act by, for example, finding that distribution by someone other than the copyright owner would result in publication. Thus, since the Internet permits anyone to access copies of content, the copyright owner who posts a work online is providing the public with access to copies, and, therefore, the statutory definition indicates that the content has been published.

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