Copyright infringement is the reproduction, distribution, performance or public display of copyrighted work without permission for the author or copyright owner. The unauthorized sale of recordings is a copyright infringement that has developed its own nomenclature: the act is called piracy and the product is called a bootleg recording. Another way to infringe on copyrights plagiarism, using someone’s writings without proper attribution. Copyright violations can subject the infringer to civil sanctions up to $30,000 per act or up to $150,000 for each act deemed to be willful. It is no defense that the violator was unaware that an infringement had occurred.
Because of the money involved, many headline copyright infringement cases circle around musical celebrities. A song may infringe on another musician’s copyright if the two works are substantially similar. In a copyright infringement case involving ex-Beatle George Harrison, a 1976 court found he had copied The Chiffon’’s 1962 hit “He’s So Fine” into his own hit recording of “My Sweet Lord.” Harrison’s argument that unconscious copying did not amount to plagiarism was rejected.
In an unusual 1996 case, John Fogerty of Credence Clearwater Revival was exonerated of plagiarizing his own music. Fogerty had signed over his rights to the band’s music to Fantasy Records in order to leave the group. After Fogerty recorded a hit song “The Old Man Down the Road” from a solo album, Fantasy contended that the song copied a Credence song called “Down in the Jungle.” Fogerty played both songs in court, and the jury decided the songs were simply in Fogerty’s musical style.
Famous writers have also been called out for plagiarizing the work of others. Alex Haley, the renowned author of the bestseller, Roots, settled a plagiarism suit for $650,000 after admitting that he had copied large portions of a novel by Harold Courlander.
Presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin withdrew published copies of her 1987 book, The Fitzgeralds and The Kennedys, when she was found to have plagiarized sections of the book. While conceding the plagiarism, she attributed it to poor research procedures and rewrote the book with the necessary changes. Goodwin did have to make a settlement to one of the unattributed sources for an undisclosed amount.
In an odd footnote, Goodwin accused Joe McGinnis, who wrote a book about Edward Kennedy, of lifting portions from her book The Fitzgeralds and The Kennedys without acknowledgment. He denied the charges.
