Copyright
Copyright is a legal right created by the law of a country that grants the creator of an original work exclusive rights for its use and distribution. This is usually only for a limited time. The exclusive rights are not absolute but limited by limitations and exceptions to copyright law, including fair use. A major limitation on copyright is that copyright protects only the original expression of ideas, and not the underlying ideas themselves. Copyright is a form of intellectual property, applicable to certain forms of creative work. Some, but not all jurisdictions require "fixing" copyrighted works in a tangible form. It is often shared among multiple authors, each of whom holds a set of rights to use or license the work, and who are commonly referred to as rights holders. These rights frequently include reproduction, control over derivative works, distribution, public performance, and "moral rights" such as attribution.
Fair Use
Fair use is a copyright principle based on the belief that the public is entitled to freely use portions of copyrighted materials for purposes of commentary and criticism. For example, if you wish to criticize a novelist, you should have the freedom to quote a portion of the novelist’s work without asking permission. Absent this freedom, copyright owners could stifle any negative comments about their work. Unfortunately, if the copyright owner disagrees with your fair use interpretation, the dispute may have to be resolved by a lawsuit or arbitration. If it’s not a fair use, then you are infringing upon the rights of the copyright owner and may be liable for damages.
Illegal Action: Downloading TV Shows and Movies
It's unlikely that anyone who's spent a moment online is unaware of the illegality associated with downloading unlicensed TV shows and movies from file sharing services. Nonetheless, it's extremely common, but the cause varies. While some are undoubtedly stealing television and film content because they simply do not want to pay, many are employing piracy because the barrier to entry is unrealistic for most consumers. Derek Bambauer explains, using HBO's Game of Thrones series as an example:
If you want to see Game of Thrones (and I do), your options are 1) subscribe to cable plus HBO, or 2) pirate. I think the series rocks, but I'm not paying $100 a month for it. If HBO expects me to do so, it weakens their moral claim against piracy. Unconvinced? Imagine instead that HBO offers to let you watch Game of Thrones for free—but the only place on Earth you can view the series is in the Kodak Theater in Hollywood. You're located in rural Iowa? Well, you've no cause for complaint! Fly to LA! I suspect that translating costs into physical costs makes the argument clearer: HBO charges not only for the content, but bundles it with one particular delivery medium. If that medium is unavailable to you, or unaffordable, you're out of luck. Unless, of course, you have broadband, and can BitTorrent.
So what can you do? As you might imagine from Derek's example, your options are pretty limited. Although you can find many shows and movies on services like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, and iTunes, those services are often lacking in content (like Game of Thrones) that is too difficult, expensive, or sometimes even impossible (e.g. if you live outside of the United States) to acquire. Although you can encrypt and anonymize your BitTorrent traffic or subscribe to a Usenet provider that offers a connection via SSL to protect yourself when downloading anything from either service, you still have no legal right to download any copyrighted content without expressed permission. For now there is little we can do to make this situation better other than encourage the film and television industries to regard piracy as competition. As iTunes has proven with music and cartoonist The Oatmeal has cleverly illutrated, when it's easier and affordable to use the legal route, that's the route most people will take.
Source : http://lifehacker.com/5888488/how-youre-breaking-the-law-every-day-and-what-you-can-do-about-it
My view
According to me, copyright is definitely a serious topic and it has to be taken seriously by people. It is not something to be taken lightly. Committing a copyright crime can cause a huge impact on someone's life as well as career. It is taken very seriously in The United States. Therefore, people are out to take it seriously as well. There have been various cases of committing the act of copyright and people have been caught and punished. People who don't know about it should definitely learn about it and aware their friends and family about it as well.
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