Copyright Primer By Wayne Youngblood

I did not find a thread using the search with copyright in title so created a new thread although it has been discussed before.

A primer by Wayne Youngblood.

https://wystamps.com/news/2022/11/7...-digital-art

Informative and well-written. Thanks for posting the link!

John

In the US copyright violations are typically civil actions. But in the case of stamp designs, copyright violations can also be a criminal action with the government pursuing federal laws.

I think one of the best tools for understanding US copyrights is this chart (click on it to see full size)

Don

Wayne's article is a good read.
With the complexity of creation date, notice, renewals, etc., I have always turned to this copyright guide on the Cornell.edu website:
https://guides.library.cornell.edu/...publicdomain
Due to lack of proper marking, there is a huge amount of pre-1978 material which is in the public domain.

Thanks for posting these three resources - the Youngblood article, the chart from Don and the Cornell piece. They each answer questions that I've had at different times.

Keep in mind that since copyright actions are very often civil suits. In other words, anyone can sue you, and force you to spend significant amounts of time and resources in defending yourself. This can be a 'rich man's game', with the party with the largest amount of resources 'outlasting' the other party.

Also keep in mind that the internet has had an impact on copyright challenges. 'Dark web' sites are often hosted in far-away jurisdictions that may or may not be influenced by judgements elsewhere. Bringing an action against a website hosting company or author located in Kathmandu represents an even greater amount of time and cost.
Don

Unless someone has lawyers looking to stay busy or there is some financial gain to go after, it seems copyright lawsuits really is not a significant factor for philately for social media and general writing except for Amos Media does sending the cease and desist letters for some Scott Number usage,

Has SCF ever been involved in a copyright issue?

Al,
I assume the primary reason you started the thread and the original reason Wayne wrote the article; everyone should be aware of the copyright laws when authoring or posting online.

RE: lawsuit threats
The number or frequency of copyright lawsuits is not the point, threats of a lawsuit or the potential for a lawsuit is more than enough reason for this to be an important topic in philately. Anyone who ever posts anything online or writes an article for their local stamp club or newsletter should have at least a basic understanding of copyrights. Additionally, anyone who authors a website will certainly end up finding out that someone has used part of their content/images without permission. In some cases, the entire site will be taken and republished. (All of these situations have happened to me and Stamp Smarter. It sucks to find someone has stolen your site or a stamp club has taken your content/images and used them without even bothering to ask or giving the site attribution.)

I cannot speak to SCF's experiences.
Don

The enforcement of copyright rights doesn't always require costly litigation. The Associated Press, Disney, and numerous independent photographers have delegated the authority to enforce their rights to automated, web-based enforcement services like Copytrack, Gerben Law, Excelon, and others. They use reverse image search to find unauthorized online usage of copyrighted images, then send form-based demand emails or letters to the website owners. The demands typically include a link to the service's website that states a fixed payment demand, usually $500 to $1500, with online links for paying and settling the claim and obtaining a license for past or future use. They calculate the settlement amount/license fee to make paying the fee more attractive to the infringer than hiring a lawyer to defend a claim, which the infringer usually can't win anyway.

The chart that Don posted oversimplifies the "fair use" analysis, at least for United States claimants. Having an educational purpose, alone, does not automatically confer the fair use defense. Contemporary courts focus on whether the infringing use deprives the author of the copyrighted work of the opportunity to sell or license a copy--the fourth of four factors that US courts must consider, by statute, in resolving fair use. Commercial users of third-party images who want to rely on fair use should get individualized advice.

SCF, as an online service provider, can use the "safe harbor" provisions of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, again in the US only, if SCF registers an agent for service of claims with the US Copyright Office. SCF's role as an OSP makes infringement claims unlikely, and likely to be resolved by SCF promptly responding to a takedown demand.

Chris

I believe Chris's statement (takedown notices or what I called cease and desist) would likely be the most common copyright action in the stamp hobby.

I mentioned it before but I had pictures I posted from Richmond stamp show taken from SCF and printed in two philatelic magazines without asking me. One did not crop my watermark, the other did. This goes on all the time with digital images.

The incidents we hear about most in the UK tend to be massive international companies pursuing tiny businesses over some risible, supposed similarity to the conglomerate's name. Now and then, the small business bites the bullet and fights back. The multinational then withdraws or loses, usually with little grace. Thus one, from my long-left hometown, is characteristic

https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/n...y-court-win/

The newspaper for which I worked for nearly 36 years demanded the following from free-lancers submitting material: Rights throughout the universe until the end of time. ... It kind of locked things up pretty well.