Copyright Litigation
Procedures and Remedies
A copyright holder may decide to file a copyright infringement lawsuit if she believes that infringement of one of her exclusive rights has occurred. Typically, only the holder of the exclusive right that was infringed or a beneficial holder of that right may bring a copyright infringement claim.
The copyright holder may choose to sue the person or persons who committed direct infringement, and / or anyone else who may be found to be liable under the several theories of secondary or indirect infringement described above. In many countries, the copyright holder must bring the claim within a certain period of time after the act of copyright infringement occurs, or it will be barred by the statute of limitations. The length of the statute of limitations varies by country. For example, the statute of limitations for copyright infringement actions is three years in the United States and six years in Australia. (17 U.S.C. section 507(b); Section 134(1) of the Australian Copyright Act.)
At the outset of litigation, the defendant -- who could be an individual user, a librarian, or a library -- should consider whether settlement is a better alternative than proceeding toward full trial. Because the finer points of copyright infringement litigation are often complex, defending against an allegation of copyright infringement can be very expensive. Further, because some countries allow a plaintiff who succeeds in his copyright infringement lawsuit to collect damages as set by statute, instead of having to prove actual damages, the final awards in copyright infringement actions can be large. Finally, statutes or courts may even award attorney’s fees and other costs to the plaintiff if he prevails in his litigation.
In light of these considerations, the defendant may decide that settling with the plaintiff is a better option than facing the uncertainty and potential expense of litigation. In a settlement procedure, once the parties have agreed to a set of terms and once the defendant has complied with those terms, the plaintiff will dismiss his lawsuit. The terms of settlement can vary significantly. In some instances, the plaintiff may be content with the defendant simply removing the materials from her web site. In other cases, the plaintiff may demand that the defendant pay some amount of money in addition to removing the infringing material. Frequently, as part of a settlement, the parties will agree to a permanent injunction that prohibits the defendant from engaging in the same behavior in the future.
At other times, however, the defendant may decide that settlement is not appropriate, and thus will proceed with the litigation. In order to prevail in a copyright infringement lawsuit, the copyright holder must prove:
- that the work is copyrightable
- that she is the holder of the copyright
- that the defendant used the plaintiff's work
- that unauthorized exercise of one or more of the exclusive rights occurred.
Each of these requirements is discussed in depth in earlier modules; we review them here briefly.
Unauthorized copying and reproduction is the most common form of copyright infringement. Copying may be demonstrated by direct proof, but such evidence is often unavailable. Copying may also be demonstrated indirectly, by presenting evidence of a substantial similarity between the original work and the copied work and by demonstrating that the defendant had access to the copyright holder’s work. Access may be proven by facts showing specifically how the defendant could have obtained the copyrighted work. Alternatively, it may be shown by the fact that the copyrighted work was generally available and widely distributed. The substantial similarity requirement and the access requirement are interconnected in that the more similar the two works are, the less evidence the plaintiff needs to introduce regarding access to the work.
In defending against a claim of copyright infringement, the defendant may claim several defenses and exceptions, such as fair use, statute of limitations, uncopyrightability of the original work, public domain, first sale doctrine, safe-harbor provisions, independent creation, and other statutory exemptions. We examined those Exceptions and Limitations in detail in Copyright_Exceptions_and_Limitations.
Most countries’ copyright regimes provide a broad range of remedies for copyright infringement. This is required by several of international agreements discussed in The_International_Framework_of_Copyright_Law. The copyright holder can typically seek temporary or permanent injunctive relief, actual damages suffered as the result of the infringement, award of trial costs and attorney fees. Finally, in extremely rare circumstances involving blatant copyright infringement, the infringing party may be found to be criminally liable and sanctioned with fines or imprisonment.
It should be emphasized that successful copyright infringement suits are unusual. The large majority of copyright holders are content with settlements in which defendants agree to cease their behavior and perhaps pay modest damage awards. Libraries are especially unlikely to be targets of successful copyright infringement suits. There are very few reported judicial opinions in any country in which a public or academic library has been found liable for violating the copyright laws. Thus, it is important that librarians be aware of the potential sanctions for copyright infringement, particularly so that they can give reliable advice to their various constituencies. But the libraries themselves should not be unduly worried about the prospect of being sued.
Cross-border Infringement, Extraterritoriality, Conflict of Laws and Jurisdictional Limitations
Despite attempts to create some uniformity in international copyright laws, domestic legal procedures, burdens of proof, and the availability and amount of damages vary considerably across countries. Because of these differences, the plaintiff’s choice of the country and court in which bring her suit becomes important. However, whether a particular forum is available is likely to be limited by the substantive law of copyright and the doctrines of extraterritoriality, choice of law, and conflict of laws.
For instance, a copyright holder cannot usually sue in one country for acts of copyright infringement that occurred in a different country. This is because, with a few exceptions, the doctrine of extraterritoriality means that a country's laws only apply within the geographic borders of that country. Applying this doctrine, courts in the United States have almost uniformly rejected attempts to apply U.S. copyright law to conduct outside of the United States. Most other countries have taken the same position.
The doctrine of extraterritoriality has been complicated, however, by digital technologies and the rise of the Internet. With physical goods, it is usually easy to identify "where" an act of copyright infringement occurred. However, infringement in the digital environment may involve several steps that occur in different countries governed by different copyright regimes. This muddles the question of where an actual infringement took place.
In the United States, courts confronted with such problems have generally held that US laws apply only when the defendant has engaged in some concrete act on U.S. soil. But most countries have yet to be confronted with cases of this sort. How the courts in those countries will respond remains uncertain.
If a particular infringement is alleged to have occurred at least in part in more than one country, a court will engage in a “conflict of laws” analysis to determine which country’s law will govern the infringement action. Because the same act of infringement may occur in several different countries, it is possible that courts in different countries might apply different countries' laws to the same action. Sometimes, a court will rule that the applicable law is the law of the country in which the infringement occurred. As such, that law will govern all elements of the action without regard to the nationality of the author, the country of origin of the copyrighted work, or the place of first publication of the copyrighted work. However, this view has been criticized by some commentators because its application would result in the application of different laws every time the work crosses a national border.
An alternative approach is to apply different laws to the issues of originality, ownership, and infringement -- the different elements of the infringement action. Under this view, a U.S. court would have to apply U.S. law to resolve issues of originality if the work is first published in the U.S. The law applicable to ownership is likely to be the law of the country that has the most significant relationship to the copyrighted work and to the parties involved. Finally, under the general principle of lex loci delicti (the place of wrong), the law applicable to the actual infringement is likely to be that of the country in which the actual infringement occurred.
The dominant view seems to be that courts should apply the law of the place where the infringement actually occurred. This view is consistent with the territorial limitations of copyright law, as well as the general consensus that the protections granted by copyright are largely domestic. It is also consistent with Article 5(2) of the Berne Convention, which provides that copyright protection is to be “governed exclusively by the laws of the country where protection is claimed.” At the same time, application of this view to digital acts of infringement may create significant enforcement difficulties and greatly increase the complexity of the case, as digital distribution and reproduction make it easy to disseminate copyrighted works to persons in different countries with different copyright regimes.
In short, it is currently uncertain which laws govern which aspects of copyright disputes that involve more than one country. Such disputes are becoming increasingly common. Greater attention to this matter is inevitable. One hopes that such attention will lead to greater clarity.
