This post was originally published on this site
Several years ago, a friend of mine who worked for a medical association was preparing for a conference in Copenhagen. She found an internet photo of the city’s historic waterfront and instructed the conference web designer to use something similar on the conference site’s homepage. The designer used the sample photo itself on the site. The association ended up paying $5,000 for using a copyrighted work without permission.
With the proliferation of digital media, it’s not surprising that individuals and companies scrape images from the web, grab snippets of popular songs or re-use short video clips to promote their own events, sell products or add as background for other types of media. Unfortunately, these actions are generally an infringement on copyright laws. And broadcasters in particular, used to compiling materials from a plethora of sources, need to pay particular attention so they don’t land on the wrong side of a copyright dispute.
Copyright issues are so prevalent among his clients that Louis J. Levy, attorney of counsel at Lerman Senter PLLC, offered to share his knowledge with MFM members in the hope of preventing unnecessary legal action at their companies. He included a very useful group of definitions and guidelines in his article “Copyrights Myths and Pitfalls,” for the July/August issue of MFM’s member publication, The Financial Manager, which is currently available on the MFM website. In it, Levy summarized some of the most popular misconceptions around copyright and made