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#1) A flea-market owner was sued because one of the vendors sold pirated music C

ID: 3848531 • Letter: #

Question

#1) A flea-market owner was sued because one of the vendors sold pirated music CDs at the weekly flea market. The court found the flea-market owner liable for contributory copyright infringement. Was Napster like this flea market? Discuss similarities and differences a flea market and Napster.

#2) Explain how fair-use guidelines could or could not apply to this scenario: You make a video of yourself lip-synching to a popular song and post the video on YouTube. Do you think this is ethical? Why or why not?

Explanation / Answer

1. Yes, Napster was like this flea market owner. As per the sources, in 2000, the American musical recording company A&M Records along with several other recording companies, through the Recording Industry Association of America sued Napsteron grounds of contributory and copyright infringement. After which Napster faced many allegations like:

In this case settlement was done.
The similarities between the two are this:
Napstar and flea market owner were involved in copyright issue.

The difference between these two are this:
In flea market, the vendor was directly involved, however the flea market was either contributory or direct(based on investigation) .

However, in case of Napster, this company violated the copyrights of other music companies.

2. Fair use guidelines are the guidelines are the legal guidelines used for using copyright-protected material under certain circumstances without getting permission from copyright owner.

Courts rely on Four Factors to analyze fair-use:

Although one may believe that their content is protected under fair use, and one can use that as a reason to file a dispute or counter notification, one cannot guarantee that your content will be protected from removal.

So, in the case of, lip-synching to a popular song and posting the video on YouTube, though sounds ethical to do. But to some extent it also depends upon the owner.