What is Piracy?

Art, books, inventions, magazines, movies, music, performances, reports, software, stories, and trademarks are all examples of intellectual property and can represent a substantial investment of resources and talent. Intellectual property can be protected by a copyright, patent, trademark or treated as a trade secret, and some intellectual property can be covered by multiple kinds of protection. Piracy is a theft of intellectual property - in other words, stealing what does not belong to you.

Two indicators that can be on a work or product to alert you to the author/owner's intent to protect his or her rights are a "©" or"®" on the product. A "©" on the work means it is copyrighted and an "®" means it is a registered trademark in the United States. Rules for how and when copyrights apply are a little complicated and can be found on the Library of Congress' Copyright Office website. However, just because you cannot find the mark on something does not mean there is no protection for it - copyrights, patents and trademarks may still apply; and there are also common law rights and other means to protect works, including performance contracts and licenses.

"But I bought it," you say. Read the fine print in the licensing agreement or terms of use - it may let you make one copy for emergencies or even let you install it on several devices, but don't exceed the terms of this important legal document. You don't "own" the software product - you own a physical (or single downloaded instance) and you (or someone) probably had to agree to specific terms of use when unwrapping the box or installing the product.

"But I found it on the Web," you say. Then be very, very careful. It can be difficult to locate and validate copyright information for Web materials because it is such a dynamic environment. Nevertheless, the responsibility to make appropriate compensation could fall upon you should the issue later arise. Sometimes clues to origin can be contained in a file's properties, or a search of the Web can turn up conflicting information about the origin of a file, limitations on use, and ownership of an intellectual property. Not everyone takes this issue seriously enough, nor do they all care what could happen to you should you be caught with pirated goods.

As the old saying goes, ignorance of the law really is no excuse! Two other sayings that could also keep you out of trouble: let the buyer beware and; if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is! (There can be a lot of good advice in some of those old sayings.)