Copyright Infringement

The unauthorized reproduction, distribution, public performance or other exploitation of a work protected by copyright, such as a film, piece of music, book or piece of software, without the permission of the copyright holder or a legal exception such as fair use. While most copyright disputes are resolved through civil litigation between the rights holder and the infringer, many jurisdictions also criminalize infringement carried out willfully and for commercial advantage or financial gain, such as large-scale commercial piracy operations, reserving criminal prosecution for the most serious and deliberate cases rather than incidental personal infringement. It is legally distinct from the theft of trade secrets and other intellectual property offenses in that copyright protects a specific creative expression rather than confidential information or an invention, and infringement can occur even when the original work remains fully available to its owner.