People know about Copyright when registering their intellectual property, but that is different regarding the Copyright laws of social media. When we browse social media, we often see a few beautiful pictures and feel we should share them on our profile to be popular and gain fame on these platforms. But Copyright infringement plays an important role here, and we’ll be discussing Copyright laws in the age of social media.

Copyright on Images

Nowadays, people spend most of their screen time on various social media platforms. When social media platforms had just started their journey a few years ago, one thing was a lot common, which was the stealing of content. People took the famous images and other media files of an individual who created them using their creativity to ensure they also gained fame. But fortunately, this lasted only for a short time as it was noticed by both parties, the Government and the social media platforms.

Therefore, both of them worked together to ensure that some laws were set up so that the individuals didn’t see their creative material stolen and uploaded by others. Now if any individual uses the Copyrighted material of any other individual on any social media platform, it can be taken to the legal sphere if done without authorization. There are many cases when we hear that due to Copyright infringement on social media, people are fined by the Copyright owners millions of dollars. But it is also necessary to know how an individual becomes the owner of their intellectual property on social media.

Policies of Social Media Platforms over Copyright

As the Government and Social media platforms noticed that the number of copied materials increased, they brought out some laws and regulations to ensure that the material on social media is safe and protected legally. Following the same, the Indian Government launched the Indian Copyright Act and made some changes, including the policies for social media materials. This included Section 17 (A), which defined how copyright owners will be made for any intellectual property.

Section 17 (A) of the Indian Copyright Act says that the first owner of any intellectual property on social media is the author of the same. This means that if any professional photographer has posted an image on his social media accounts, it won’t be used by anyone else, and the material now legally belongs to him. But it will be challenging for social media platforms to keep track of the copied material, as many people still need to break the rules.

To stop this from happening, Social media platforms have also allowed Copyright owners to take down the post or images which any other person has used without their permission. If this material belongs to them, even in reality, they can take this matter to the legal sphere. But this type of Copyright ownership can be transferred from person to person and is royalty-free.

Concluding Final Thoughts

Finally, as copyright laws continue to evolve and adapt to the ever-changing technological landscape, individuals and businesses may find it difficult to navigate the digital landscape of social media.

Because of the ease with which material may be downloaded and disseminated online, it is now easier than ever to violate the intellectual property rights of others.

Individuals and organizations must thus understand and follow copyright regulations to avoid costly legal penalties. At the same time, copyright regulations must balance the interests of creators and users, allowing for the free flow of information and innovation while protecting the rights of those who generate original material. By striking this balance, copyright rules may continue to support innovation and creativity in the digital era.

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Fair Use: A Legal Principle for Using Copyrighted Material

The legal concept of fair use occasionally authorises utilising copyrighted materials without the owner’s permission. The nature of the copyrighted work, the user’s intent and character, the size and weight of the portion utilised concerning the whole, and the impact of the use on the copyrighted work’s potential market or value are some circumstances.

Fair use permits transforming copyrighted content into another form while adding value to the original work and avoiding direct competition with the work’s commercial market. However, identifying what constitutes fair use may be challenging since there must be a formula for how much of a work can be utilised or what constitutes transformative usage. Courts will analyse each case on its own merits and consider several variables when determining fair usage.

Evaluation, explanations, reporting on news, teaching, scholarship, research, and parody are a few examples of previously acknowledged fair use. It’s crucial to remember that fair use isn’t guaranteed and that copyright holders can still sue if they think their rights have been violated.

Creative Commons: A Framework for Sharing and Using Creative Works

On the other hand, Creative Commons licencing offers writers a less difficult approach to share their work with others while maintaining some control over how it is used. Authors can specify the usage terms for their work using a Creative Commons licence, including whether it can be modified, used for profit, and if credit is required.

Creators can select the Creative Commons licence that best matches their purposes from various options, each with a unique set of requirements. Users of content covered by a Creative Commons licence must abide by the rules of the licence to protect the author’s copyright.

For example, work with a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence can be shared and used for non-commercial purposes as long as it isn’t modified and the creator is properly attributed. However, it would be against the conditions of the licence and may result in legal action if someone altered the work or used it in a commercial setting.

The Gray Areas of Copyright Law: Challenges in Determining Fair Use and Educational Uses

Even while fair use and Creative Commons licencing give very clear principles, copyright law still has a lot of undefined regions. The determination of what constitutes transformative usage is one of the largest obstacles. Numerous uses are less obvious, even if some, like criticism or satire, are typically seen as transformational.

Some people could deem some actions transformative, while others would not, such as utilising a bit of a song in a TikTok video or adding a copyrighted image to a collage. The usage of copyrighted content in educational settings is another source of uncertainty. There are limitations on how much and for what reasons copyrighted material may be used, notwithstanding the fair use concept permitting its use in education.

Even in an educational setting, copying a whole textbook and giving copies to pupils would likely be regarded as something other than fair use since it would compete with the work’s commercial market. However, utilising a tiny amount of the book for instruction and criticism could be OK.

The growth of online learning has also presented new difficulties for copyright law since educators now have to traverse detailed guidelines for fair use and digital rights management in a continually changing setting. As a result, teachers and students must be aware of the restrictions on fair use and request authorisation from copyright holders as needed.

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Disney vs Allen

The Copyright Infringement case between Walt Disney and Thornton Allen came out to be the biggest Copyright Infringement case ever. Allen said that Disney used a part of his original song “Old Eli” in the song “Someday My Prince Will Come” in the movie “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”. The song in the movie was sung by Frank Churchill and Allen took this case to the court when he got to know about the same. Although the case wasn’t actionable as both the music had a bit of similarities which were not strong enough to make it an actionable Infringement case.

George Harrison vs Chiffons

This case is known to be the earliest and also the most popular Copyright Infringement case in the entire music industry and it definitely affected the industry to a huge extent. Chiffon’s song “My Sweet Lord” was alleged to be stolen from the song “He’s So Fine” which was sung by George Harrison. The case took a long time to be sorted as it was definitely a high-profile case for the music industry. Therefore, the court had to investigate things clearly before reaching a decision. Once the investigations had been done, it was made clear that Chiffons used a part of George Harrison’s song which ultimately led to the victory of George Harrison in this case. Along with that, this case also set an example for other music companies to not make this mistake.

Vanilla Ice vs Queen

Vanilla Ice and Queen are among the most beautiful singers of all-time. Vanilla Ice’s song “Ice Ice Baby” was an ultimate hit for the music industry until it got noticed by Queen where the latter got to know that a part of her song “Under Pressure” was used in the song. Queen said that the part of her song used by Vanilla Ice was just a sample part but it was used without permission due to which the case was taken to the court. After a few hearings, the decision came in the favour of Queen and Vanilla Ice had to pay for the damages to the Copyright owner.

Ed Sheeran vs Marvin Gaye

If we have a look at the current high-profile cases of Copyright Infringement in the music industry, people will surely have the case between Ed Sheeran and Martin Gaye in the list. This case is still going on as Ed Sheeran is reported to copy the song of Martin Gaye in his 2014 hit song “Thinking Out Loud”. The team of Marvin Gaye filed a lawsuit when they got to know that Ed Sheeran’s song was copied from her “Let’s Get It On” song repeatedly. Although the case has yet not been cleared, it is expected to be cleared soon.

Katy Perry vs Marcus Gray

Last, but not the least is the Copyright Infringement case between Marcus Gray and Katy Perry. This case was filed by Marcus Gray saying that Katy Perry copied a part of his song in her “Dark Horse”. Marcus Gray said that Katy Perry had copied the part of his song “Joyful Noise” saying that some parts of the song sound similar to the one of Katy Perry. The court hearings came out in favour of Marcus Gray due to which Katy Perry had to pay a total of 2.78 million US dollars for the damages caused.

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