Without copyrights, musicians are left empty-handed

Let's say we're musicians, and we've written and recorded a song.  We give it to a DJ friend who plays it on his radio show, and pretty soon people are calling in to request it. From there, two things may happen: (1) Our song becomes a big hit, and we earn enough money to become full-time musicians; or (2) Our song becomes a big hit, somebody rips it off, and we have to keep our job delivering pizzas and making music if we can find the time.

For an artist, a copyright is the legal protection that can help make a career because it safeguards his or her work. Once a work is copyrighted, only the person who holds that copyright (or an expressly authorized third party, like a music label) is allowed to copy, distribute, perform, exhibit, and create derivative works from it.  Copyright holders [and their licensees] are the only ones who can give the protections of copyright and allow use of the songs.

Take Pink's song "God is a DJ", for example.  In order for us to use 27 seconds of Pink's single for the What's The Download® public service television announcement, we had to get permission from the record label (Arista), the artist (Pink), the songwriters (Pink, Billymann, Jonathan S. Davis) and the publishing companies (P!nk Inside Publishing/EMI, Blackwood Music Inc. (BMI), Sony/ATV/Turtle Victory Music (SESAC)/Sony/ATV Tunes LLC/Love Bud Inc. (ASCAP))!

The U.S. government established the Copyright Act in 1976 to protect artists' "original works of authorship."  These include music and lyrics, film, literature, software programs, video games, photography, sculpture, architecture, choreographic work, and sound recordings.

Under the law, a work is automatically copyrighted once it is "fixed" (meaning printed or recorded).  The artist also can officially register his or her work with the government, which provides certain enhanced remedies and other benefits.  In addition, the artist can sell or transfer the copyright to another person or a company to handle ownership of the work.  This is often what happens with artists and their publishers and record labels. The artist lets the publisher and record label control the copyright.

What's the bottom line?  It's simple: swapping and/or sharing music that's been downloaded from an unlicensed P2P Internet site or burned from a CD and shared violates its copyright and - you guessed it - is against the law.  Proving that a person has infringed on a copyright is also simple, as long as the copyright owner can prove that the work was copied or downloaded, including by (1) proving the downloader had access to the work and (2) showing that the copy or download is substantially similar to the original work.  A copyright owner with these pieces of evidence would likely win a lawsuit.

Busted
So what might happen to us if we're busted for sharing music?  We could end up having to pay $150,000 in damages, or more if the copyright owner can prove that even more money was lost because of the downloading.  And if we were distributing copies for commercial use or personal financial gain, we could face jail time and other fines.

Copyright laws got tighter in 1997, when the No Electronic Theft Act, or NET, was passed.  Under NET, copyright holders zero in on people who regularly share files online (including music, software, videos, and games), especially those who do so in large quantities and make money on it.  For example, when a copyrighted work earns a downloader more than $1,000, he or she can be criminally prosecuted, fined, and sent to jail.

Is that Fair?
There are two minor exceptions to the Copyright Act: "Fair Use" and "public domain." The Fair Use doctrine allows copyrighted works to be reproduced for limited purposes, such as teaching, news reporting, criticism, comment, and research.  But downloaders beware: courts have already ruled that downloading and uploading copyrighted music without permission does not fall under "fair use."

A copyright generally remains valid for 70 years after the author of a work has died. After that, the work falls into the "public domain," and may be freely used by anyone.  Remember: just because a copyrighted work is no longer being reproduced or distributed, that doesn't mean that it's automatically in the "public domain."

To learn more about copyrights, visit www.copyright.gov. And for more information about what's legal and what's not about music downloading, check out our FAQ.