Definition by Wikipedia:
Copyright infringement is the use of works protected by copyright law without permission.

The question:
That of which I understand but as to what extent? Let me give out an example(Of which I assume no one asked if the music was bought or not) and I'll use Stickpage as my basis on this. SP caters animations and sponsors them if they can be "good" enough to be in the frontpage. More or less, these animations have music and SFX's but I'd like to focus on the music part. Music used in animations can be either for free or you need to pay for it to get the file but there are softwares(YouTube Downloader) and sites that allow us to download these for free, which is of course, bad.

Now, these music that were supposed to be paid for but we got it for free in our animations are now used as BGM, and the animators who get sponsored for it gets paid. Is this copyright infringement? If it is, what are the parameters that label an animation to have such things? Does Stone actually check for these things before sponsoring them? In fact, there are other components that can classify with this.

I don't mean to point fingers but I'm quite interested in this and for a site that sponsors animation, I don't see a lot of discussion pertaining to this. The new aspiring animators who come here might get some information, who knows.

Discuss.

It's perfectly legal until someone finds out about it

Quote from Drone

It's perfectly legal until someone finds out about it

That's unfair for the people who worked on the music though.

I don't think it's such a big deal as people make it out to be but it is complex. Copyright laws extend far, and they have a whole bunch of rules,exception to limitations, and penalties. In this case animating, i'm discussing "fair use" for benefit to the public . There are questions a user and sponsor of works involving copyrighted material should ask before he tries to make a profit off of sponsoring: Is the user making something new or just copying or Is he competing with the source he's copying from?. There are also rules such as : Giving the author credit doesn't mean you can use his material as you like, The More You Take The Less Fair Your Use Will Likely To Be, And The Importance Of Quality Over Quantity. A reminder that these principles and rules don't go for just animating or writing, it goes for all imaginative or creative, literary and artistic works. Also this forum is pretty diverse, in the sense that they're from different countries and CR laws may differ accordingly. If someone uses a popular song in their animation then looks for a sponsorship, the person whose going to have more work on his plate would be the sponsor, imo.

In most of the cases that I've locally seen in India, the law basically determines if the work is reasonably recognizable as the original. If it is, and you're profiting off it in some way, it counts as a copyright violation. Thats essentially it in a nutshell.

This is a good question and one I actually should ask CJ about to be clear on where our standing is. In the US where it matters to SP the answer is yes, it's copyright infringement. In fact, money doesn't even have to exchange hands for it to be copyright infringement. If you use any copyright music in your work without actually paying for licensing or otherwise having legal permission to use the music, it's copyright infringement. There are reasonable exceptions to this that come under what's known as "fair use", but contrary to what seems to be popular belief amateur stick figure animations aren't protected by fair use.

I don't know where SP's money comes from, but damn i feel sorry for you guys.

Quote from Tun3

I don't think it's such a big deal as people make it out to be but it is complex. Copyright laws extend far, and they have a whole bunch of rules,exception to limitations, and penalties. In this case animating, i'm discussing "fair use" for benefit to the public . There are questions a user and sponsor of works involving copyrighted material should ask before he tries to make a profit off of sponsoring: Is the user making something new or just copying or Is he competing with the source he's copying from?. There are also rules such as : Giving the author credit doesn't mean you can use his material as you like, The More You Take The Less Fair Your Use Will Likely To Be, And The Importance Of Quality Over Quantity. A reminder that these principles and rules don't go for just animating or writing, it goes for all imaginative or creative, literary and artistic works. Also this forum is pretty diverse, in the sense that they're from different countries and CR laws may differ accordingly. If someone uses a popular song in their animation then looks for a sponsorship, the person whose going to have more work on his plate would be the sponsor, imo.

I've heard of "Fair Use" before but I don't really know that much about them. Can you expound? I know I can Google but I'd rather ask here than there.

Quote from Nish

In most of the cases that I've locally seen in India, the law basically determines if the work is reasonably recognizable as the original. If it is, and you're profiting off it in some way, it counts as a copyright violation. Thats essentially it in a nutshell.

Hmmm, by "work" you mean the music used right? Not the animation itself?

Quote from Jeff

This is a good question and one I actually should ask CJ about to be clear on where our standing is. In the US where it matters to SP the answer is yes, it's copyright infringement. In fact, money doesn't even have to exchange hands for it to be copyright infringement. If you use any copyright music in your work without actually paying for licensing or otherwise having legal permission to use the music, it's copyright infringement. There are reasonable exceptions to this that come under what's known as "fair use", but contrary to what seems to be popular belief amateur stick figure animations aren't protected by fair use.

Damn.

When CJ does tell you, please do let us know. That would be great.

Quote from Tun3

I don't know where SP's money comes from, but damn i feel sorry for you guys.

How so?

I recall hearing from my teacher that copyright on a song goes as far as 75 years. After that its free of use. I'm not sure about that, cuz I've yet to look it up myself. :L