Not panicking is easier said than done, especially when it comes to something you have poured your heart into, perhaps even spent years creating. Nevertheless, reacting too quickly, without enough prep-work, and, potentially, without expert advice, can cause more harm than good. It may even land you, the wronged party, in hot water. Luckily, you are one of many creators today who have to work to protect their work against potential copyright infringement, be it accidental, or

For photographers and image creators, digital photos’ infringement is a cruel reality. Based on statistics, 2.5 billion photos were stolen daily in 2019. Copyright infringement of digital photos differs in important ways from infringement in the markets of music and movies. Opportunities for photo infringement are numerous as an infringer need not actively log into a peer-to-peer file-sharing network to infringe; one need only right-click an image found via an online search.

Copyright arises automatically when an original work is created. Copyright protects “original works of authorship,” which include paintings, illustrations, sculpture, photographs, books, articles, dissertations, poems, movies, songs, recordings, logo designs, websites, software code and more. While the creator of the work automatically obtains copyright in the work and is immediately entitled to protection, proving ownership of that copyright is another story. All too often i

Throughout history, humans have faced a variety of challenges in protecting their intellectual property. Being intangible and non-material, intellectual property is easily stolen while creators are often oblivious or informed much later on. In the digital age, intellectual property is easily distributed on the web, and copyright infringement has become significantly easier. Furthermore, we are all creators these days. Technology has provided us with the tools to enable us to

This article is part of our series showcasing well-known copyright ownership cases from the music and film industries, technology, and more. In this week’s post, we look at two well-known copyright infringement cases involving big bands battling each other over ownership rights. Vanilla Ice vs David Bowie & Queen It was the early 90s when “Ice Ice Baby” was a top hit in the charts. We all knew Vanilla Ice back then. What many people don’t know, however, is that the song sampl