Infringement Suit in United States Law

U.S. law requires a copyright holder to establish ownership of a valid copyright and the copying of constituent elements of the work that are original. Assuming the plaintiff proves ownership of a valid copyright, the holder must then establish both actual copying and improper appropriation of the work. The burden lies with the plaintiff to establish these three elements in what is known as the prima facie case for infringement.U.S. law requires a copyright holder to establish ownership of a valid copyright and the copying of constituent elements of the work that are original. Assuming the plaintiff proves ownership of a valid copyright, the holder must then establish both actual copying and improper appropriation of the work. The burden lies with the plaintiff to establish these three elements in what is known as the prima facie case for infringement.RemediesOnce copyright infringement has been proven, United States law permits both equitable (injunction) and monetary damages.If the copyright was registered in a timely manner, an infringer can be liable for “statutory damages”. The amount of these are set by the Court within a range given by statute, and it is not necessary to prove specific economic harm. This can greatly reduce the cost and uncertainty of the damage phase of a trial. Absent eligibility for statutory damages, the copyright holder must prove that specific amount of economic damage caused by the infringement, so that the Court can award it. This can be difficult in e.g. open source software cases and cases involving works by individual authors that were not widely published.Amendments to the 1976 Copyright ActWith the passage of the No Electronic Theft Act (NET Act), US copyright law was changed to allow for the civil and criminal prosecution of persons allegedly engaged in copying of copyrighted works without permission that did not result in personal financial gain; historically, the criminal copyright law required infringement to be for financial gain. Among other things, the NET Act altered the definition of financial gain to include bartering and trading. In addition, under this US law, members of software piracy groups could also be prosecuted for participation in a criminal enterprise.