What constitutes a copyright infringement?

Answer 1

Use of a copyrighted material without permission, except for fair comments and criticism. You can review a work, you cannot, publish it. If there was no fair comment, a book like Mien Kampf could be published without challenge.

Taking a work, and rewriting it, without paying royalties, that kind of thing. Also, illegal uploads and downloads of music and movies. That would be infringement.

Answer 2

Here's an example. Your teacher goes to the video store and buys a video, then shows the video to the class in school. Buying the video is legal, but showing it to the class is a public performance--that's copyright infringement. Read the FBI warning at the beginning of the movie.

Answer 3

Visit this site: http://www.copyright.gov/

And showing a movie to a classroom of students does not consititute a public performance --- and even less so if the content of the movie is furthering an educational cause.

Although how certain movies (such as "The Scarlet Letter" with Demi Moore) can be considered furthering an educational cause is beyond me, since they alter the story so much that it bears little resemblance to the novel.