Copyright litigation in the United States: overview

By Maria Luisa Palmese

In the US, there are two types of statutory laws, federal laws enacted by the US Congress and state laws enacted by individual states.

US copyright law stems from Article 1, section 8, clause 8, of the US Constitution, which is often referred to as the Copyright Clause. This clause gives the US Congress the "power to promote the progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries".

The principal source of copyright law in the US is the Copyright Act 1976 (17 USC 101 et seq), which took effect on 1 January 1978 and is often referred to as the Copyright Act. Other important sources of US copyright law include the Digital Millennium Copyright Act 1998, codified in the Copyright Act at 17 USC 512, 1201-1205, 1301-1332, which relates to software protection and digital technology, and 18 USC 2319, which provides for additional penalties for criminal copyright infringement, including imprisonment.

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