Whether you are the alleged infringer or the copyright owner, calculating damages for a copyright infringement case is critical to determining your potential legal strategy. To analyze, the first thing to consider is whether the pirated work has been registered with the copyright office. Registered works are further protected and these registration records can be found in a free online database. To access copyright registration records, you must go to the Copyright Office website.

Legal and actual damages

Your best legal strategy is not only determined by the best copyright infringement software. Read on to learn more about the types of calculated damages that could help determine what works well for you.

Legal damages are usually higher than actual damages and are easier to calculate. Therefore, most plaintiffs or content owners generally choose to claim legal damages. For cases of illegal file sharing, for example, the actual damages per pirated song can be around $ 1; however, legal damages could be $ 20,000 or more.

Regardless of the actual damages suffered by the content owner, the amount of statutory damages is established by law. Each violation typically ranges from $ 750 to $ 30,000, but damages for “innocent offenders” can be as high as $ 200 to $ 150,000 if the court finds that the defendant acted “deliberately.” Courts do not award damages outside of this range and consider the purpose of the infringing use, the value of the infringed work, and the intent or status of the infringer.

In addition to legal damages, plaintiffs can also request attorney’s fees and, if awarded, the violator will owe them the full amount or part of the legal fees plus their own attorney’s fees. Although attorneys ‘fees are awarded at the discretion of the court, unregistered copyrights can never request attorneys’ fees.

Plaintiffs pursue actual damages when their infringed work was not recorded prior to the infringement. This type of damage is the calculable gain that the infringer has obtained by infringing the copyright or the monetary loss that the owner of the content has suffered.

Proper analysis

In addition to better understanding the strength of your copyright infringement case, proper analysis of potential damages plays an important role in determining a legal strategy. Calculating damages for copyright infringement is just one of the things involved in determining a person’s rights under copyright law.

Most copyright cases do not go to trial and some defendants even choose to settle, as the cost of a court case is already high, and additional legal fees could also increase. So if you feel like your work has been infringed, speak to a copyright entity. They can help you identify the individual details that you will need to determine in order to develop the best legal action. Also, they use high-quality copyright infringement software to track down hackers.