What is a copyright infringement?

Question

A guy told me that I can't have Los Angeles Lakers background on my Yahoo becasue of copyright infringements. I want to know what that means.

Answer 1

Copyright infringement means using material that belong to, and is copyrighted, by someone else. As always, Wikipedia has a section on this; I'm not sure how good it is, but it should provide you with some background: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_i...

If you're just using a background with the logo, not pictures or stories from a website, then I doubt your Lakers background presents a copyright violation.

The background may present a trademark violation. (Just when you thought it wouldn't be confusing.) Trademark identifies products used in commerce. Most sports teams will trademark logos and such that are used to denote their identity.

There's a bit on Trademark infringement here: http://www.bitlaw.com/trademark/infringe...

One major difference in copyright vs. trademark infringement is that trademark infringement refers to uses in business. If you're not using your site for business purposes or implying in any way that you're associated with the Lakers, then it's hard to say that you're using their logo in business. You might also stick on some disclaimer text at the bottom of your site that says that you're not affiliated in any way with the Lakers.

If it was just "some guy" that told you about this, and not an official communication from a lawyer, I wouldn't worry about it at this point. If you do get an official letter from a lawyer telling you to cease and desist your use of the background, then you should reconsider what to do at that point.