Problems With Copyright on the Internet
- Generally, it is not necessary to ask permission from a copyright owner to link to a website unless it is to a page other than the home page. In the Ticketmaster v. Tickets.com case in 2000, the courts ruled that "hyperlinking does not itself involve a violation of the Copyright Act since no copying is involved."
- Many sites are offering "royalty free" material, allowing users to use their content. However, "royalty free" does not necessarily mean the material can be used any way the user pleases. It means the owner is licensing the material at no charge but there may be specific restrictions. "Copyright free" implies public domain.
- Public domain is defined as material whose copyright has expired or material that members of the public are allowed to use how they want. Many songs of the 19th Century and earlier now fall under public domain.
- Neither shareware nor freeware fall under the category of public domain. Just because a product is offered free online, doesn't mean it lacks copyright protection. The software creator is still the copyright owner and decides how the software is licensed.
- The copyright notice with a circle around a "c" followed by the year the material was created and owner's name is a practice done by copyright owners but is not necessary. Just because a copyright notice does not appear on a published work does not mean the work is public domain.
- As a measure against infringement, YouTube uses a Copyright ID tool. Legal music download services such as iTunes encode songs with "digital rights management" technology.
- Music royalties from Internet radio play are determined by the Copyright Royalty Board. Songwriters and publishers earn a fraction of a penny when their song is played online by a DMCA-compliant webcaster.