Gale Encyclopedia of American Law Volume 3 P23 fully illuminates today's leading cases, major statutes, legal terms and concepts, notable persons involved with the law, important documents and more. Legal issues are fully discussed in easy-to-understand language, including such high-profile topics as the Americans with Disabilities Act, capital punishment, domestic violence, gay and lesbian rights, physician-assisted suicide and thousands more. | 208 COPYRIGHT Willful copyright infringement can be a federal misdemeanor punishable by as much as 10 000 or one year s imprisonment. Criminal prosecutions on this basis require that infringement be for the purposes of commercial advantage or private financial gain 17 . 506 a . Criminal prosecutions for copyright infringement are generally rare. Nevertheless piracy of music and motion picture recordings in which criminals mass-produce such recordings without permission and without paying royalties has become increasingly common. This fact led to the passage of the Piracy and Counterfeiting Amendments Act of 1982 18 . 2318 which allows punishment of up to 250 000 in fines or five years in prison for pirating one thousand phonorecords or 65 films within 180 days. The fraudulent use or removal of copyright notices is also a punishable offense. Fair Use Fair use is a judicial doctrine that refers to a use of copyrighted material that does not infringe upon or violate the exclusive rights of the copyright holder. Fair use is an important and well established limitation on the exclusive right of copyright owners. Examples of fair use include the making of Braille copies or audio recordings of books for use by blind people and the making of video recordings of broadcast television programs or films by individuals for certain private noncommercial use. Examples of fair use typically involve according to the Copyright Act of 1976 the reproduction of authored works for the purpose of criticism comment news reporting teaching . scholarship or research 17 . 107 . The same act also establishes a four-part test to determine fair use according to the following factors 1 the purpose and character of the use including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes 2 the nature of the copyrighted work 3 the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole and 4 the effect of the use
