Legal Analysis Template
Case: A&M Records, Inc. v. Napster, Inc.,
Issue(s)1: Criminal Copyright Infringement (17 U.S. Code, 506)
Issue & Element(s)2 Supported or
Not Supported3 Facts or
No Facts4 Notes and
Comments5
Any person who willfully infringes a copyright shall be punished as provided under section 2319 of title 18, if the infringement was committed - for purposes of commercial advantage or private financial gain Napster had willfully infringed the copyrights of the corporate music producers without their consent. The facts state that Napster had done some serious breach of contract by doing this task. The infringement of the copyright is a criminal offense. Here Napster had misused the copyright act issued by the Government and shared the files which were under his safeguard. The 2319 section of title 18 states that this infringement cannot be entertained.
Conclusion:
Napster is one of the guilty persons who had infringed the intellectual property of the CDs and MP3 digital files. He utilized them wrongly and made peer to peer copy through the file sharing network. The corporate music composers complained that Napster was infringing the intellectual rights and copying the contents of their creations. This was a very unethical task to do for Napster. The copyright act of 1976 states that a person cannot copy or infringe the copyright of any product or company without the consent of the same. The copyright act states that as the authorship of the particular product lies in the hands of someone else, the copyright safeguards the creation. The copyright is very important for saving the various files from getting copied and wrongly circulated in the market. The copyright act states that the original authorship and media is safe. There are three parts of the copyright act. They are fixation, originality and expression. The copyright is a legal permission that prohibits the free copying of any content. The copyright originates with the original creator of the work. It can also be traded and sold.
What Napster did was a breach of the copyright act. He did the unethical act of copying the products without the prior permission of the owner of the product. He had misused his powers and had wrongly accessed his right to have the products. This is a serious offense and must be punished in the court of law.
Written Legal Analysis:
what is copyright? This is a legal safeguard to the creative products of a person or an organization. Copyright is very important for safeguarding the product from piracies. The copyright involves a number of legal procedures. If a product does not have a copyright then the authorship of the product is breached and there are the chances that the product can be pirated. The piracy of the product does not provide with the creator with any financial or social benefits and definitely robs the person of the rightful gains. Therefore, the copyrighting of a product is of heightened importance in the modern times.
there are many kinds of Copyrights and the United States of America had been using the copyright act of 1976 till date. The copyright act of 1976 states that no copyrighted material can be copied partial or full without the written consent of the owner of the copyright. Any infringement or breach of the regulation can incur serious consequences. I just written this case study since i am writer at
best essay writing service USA.
Napster had the responsibilities of storing and safeguarding the CDs and the MP3 formats. He had the trust along with him. What he did was thus the breach of trust. He made peer copies of the intellectual property of others that he had in his duty. The United States of American condemns such an action vehemently as this is a breach of trust. There are several jurisdictions in America for the person who breaks the trust of others.
The violation of the copyright has several outcomes. The person who does the breach of copyright can be put behind the bars. Infringement is seen as a hideous thing in the States. The government has made it very clear that anyone who is breaking a law shall be condemned. The US copyright law is very strict. There are many titles as per the various ways, means and subjects of copyright. The copyright act has been amended many times and newer copyrights are included in the same. There are several kinds of piracy and infringement acts in the United States. The most common are Piracy and Counterfeiting Amendments Act of 1982, Semiconductor Chip Protection Act of 1984, Satellite Home Viewer Act of 1988, Architectural Works Copyright Protection Act, Title VII of the Judicial Improvements Act of 1990, Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act, Title II of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and Computer Maintenance Competition Assurance Act.
These are some of the acts that has made the production safe. The copyright shall be very helpful for the creators that their creation is not unduly duplicated. There are several kinds of copyrights. Some of the most common copyrights are mentioned herewith.
the good side of the copyright act is that this helps the owner to get the proper honor for the product. The copyright act is but a shield in undue copying. It shall also save from piracy and the creator can get some revenue from the creation if the creation is sold. The copyright act also helps in upgrading the sanctity of the creation.
Copyright is thus very important for the creator.
Therefore, it can be said that Napster had done a big mistake by copying the intellectual property. This was a serious breach of copyright. The article 2139 states that the intellectual property resides with the person who have created it and the one who is under some agreement due to the intellectual property. If any third person enters into this then there can be a serious infringement which can cause a lot of trouble.
Therefore, Napster must be given punishment which shall warn the others from committing similar mistakes in future.