Rule of Law

My interview with Ms. Lee went great and I learned a great deal the many laws put in place to help protect my work but I learned there are grey areas in these laws that can allow someone to steal. I looked up examples after my interview and I have seen pictures of original art compared to stolen and the amount of change is almost non existent. I realized just how little one needs to change to steal my work. Most of the questions that we discussed pertained to issues of trademark, contacts, and infringement. "Infringement of a copyright can be treated as a federal crime under the Copyright Act if it is done intentionally and with full knowledge that an infringement is occurring." (Patent, Copyright, and Trademark. Page 243). While the law is clear on infringement there are limits like fair dealing for the purpose of criticism or review. "Some uses of a copyrighted work are considered fair use- that is, the use may infringe, but the infringement is excused because the work is being used for a transformative purpose such as research, scholarship, criticism, or journalism"(Patent, Copyright, and Trademark. Page 200). This allows reviewers to make a fair dealing of copyright material provided they acknowledge the work. She talked about the steps when taking action against someone one of the first moves us sending a letter of cease and desist. "informs the alleged infringer of the validity of ownership of the copyrighted work, the nature of the infringement, and the remedies that are available to the copyright holder unless the infringement is halted."(Patent, Copyright, and Trademark. Page 220). Following that some sort of recompense is negotiated before going to court. Overall she was very straight forward with answers and was sure of her answers coming from similar cases and past experiences.