Examples of Copyright Violations (Infringements):

Example 1:

A school district in California was sued for making nearly 1,400 unauthorized copies of Adobe Photoshop and Microsoft Word and installing them on district computers.  The law suit eventually settled out of court, with the school district paying a fine of $300,000 plus the cost of replacing the illegal copies districtwide, roughly $5 million.

Example 2:

A Texas school administrator made 300 copies of multiple pages from a book and distrubuted them at a districwide meeting.  The administrator was warned against making the copies without permission but did so anyway.  The publisher of the book was made aware of the copying and sent cease-and desist letters to the administrator and the superintendent and demanded payment in an amount equal to 300 copies of the book, which reportely was $15,000.

Example 3:

The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP), the organization that represent the interests of songwriters, sent a mailing to 6,000 Girl Scout camps demanding payment of performance royalties by scouts for singing copyrighted songs at camp.  Included in the mailing was a schedule of fees that went as high as $1,400 for large, year-round camps.  ASCAP argued that singing any of its more than 4 million copyrighted songs without payment of royalties constituted unauthorized performance of copyrighted works by the scouts.  When news of ASCAP's demands hit the mainstream media, ASCAP quickly backed off of its legal claim.

Additional Examples of Copyright Case Law:

Wikipedia offers many more example of Copyright Case Law in other jurisdictions. Here is the link:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_copyright_case_law 

Copyright Infringement Cases Can Teach Us To Obey Copyright Laws:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/335346/copyright_infringement_cases_can_teach.html?cat=17 

Copyright Authorization:

Information obtained from the book, Cyber Law: Maximizing Safety and Minimizing Risk in Classrooms, was used with written authorization from the author, Aimee M. Bissonette, J.D. obtained on October 29, 2010.  (Note to facilitators:  A PDF copy of this authorization is stored in the "Images and Files" area of this course.)