Legal Question in Intellectual Property in Michigan

Are movie websites in copyright violation for streaming my work?


Asked on 6/09/16, 7:56 am

1 Answer from Attorneys

John Mitchell Interaction Law

It depends.

But first, let's address the issue: It is not a question whether someone is "in violation of copyright" but whether someone "infringed an exclusive right granted to you by the Copyright Act."

As for "streaming," it depends on whether the stream is a public performance of your work. Of the rights granted to you in Section 106 of the Act, specifically 106(4), you only have the exclusive right to perform the work "publicly." You do not have the exclusive right to perform your work non-publicly. (For example, if you wrote a poem, people would need your permission to recite it in public before a live audience or in a podcast, but would not need your permission to recite it at home to friends and family around a dinner table.) See Section 101 for the definition of what constitutes "publicly".

If you are a co-author, any of the other co-authors may authorize the public performance. Even if you agreed they would not, the person who publicly performs the work with their permission does not infringe.

Finally, your exclusive right (the copyright) to perform your work publicly is "subject to sections 107 through 122". There are exceptions that might apply to authorize someone to publicly perform your work without your permission, with Section 107 being perhaps the most far-reaching.

See https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/101 for the definitions, and https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/106 for the text of the exclusive right to perform the work publicly. You can change the last three digits of the URL to find sections 107-122 for the exceptions and limitations.

Read more
Answered on 6/09/16, 8:16 am


Related Questions & Answers

More Intellectual Property questions and answers in Michigan