Analysis on Copyright Infringement

In a recent Washington Post article, Shyamkrishna Balganesh of the University of Pennsylvania Law School and Eugene Volokh of UCLA School of Law provide insight on copyright infringement in light of a recent WikiLeaks tweet containing a link to the full text of Fire and Fury by Michael Wolff.

“If I upload an unauthorized copy of a book on my website and I share that link to everyone, that’s clearly direct copyright infringement,” said Professor Balganesh, who specializes in copyright and intellectual property laws. “On the other hand, if someone else uploads some infringing content and I just share its location, i.e., the link via a tweet, then it is unlikely to be direct infringement.”

Although sharing a link to unauthorized content is generally not considered copyright infringement, a party sharing unauthorized content may still be liable. “You can imagine a lawsuit against WikiLeaks for inducing infringement or contributing to infringement,” said Professor Volokh.

Read the full Washington Post article

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