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By Adam Dachis, Lifehacker

You share music, rip DVDs, make Hitler whine about your first world problems, and much more in the course of your regular online activities and more often than not, you do these things without giving a thought to the fact that you're actually breaking the law. Here's a look at how you're inevitably circumventing copyright law and what you can do to protect yourself.

Why it's almost impossible to avoid breaking copyright law Copyright law is extremely complex. It's so complex that lawyers, lawmakers, and experts heavily argue over how it's interpreted and applied. Nonetheless, if you commit a crime, you can't use ignorance as an excuse. The law doesn't (officially) offer leniency for misunderstanding or lack of knowledge. So how can you comply with convoluted copyright laws when you can't realistically understand them all? You can't, and so you may end up breaking these laws on a regular basis without ever knowing it.

To make matters worse, a spectrum of illegality makes it acceptable to break the rules in some circumstances yet not others. Experience tells us that uploading a home video to a video sharing website (e.g. YouTube) that features a copyrighted song is sometimes okay, but downloading a television episode is not.

Both of these actions are similarly illegal, but the first example is regularly tolerated while the second can lead to a loss of Internet connectivity, a fine, or even jail time (depending on the number of offenses and how often copyright holders decide to "catch" you).

Just as it's easier for us to circumvent copyright law online, it's easier for copyright holders to come after us. I spoke with Derek Bambauer, assistant professor of law at Brooklyn Law School, who explained this is particularly problematic because infringement is often only a byproduct of the way we communicate and bears no intention of doing anything illegal:

The tricky thing is, if you and I want to share a recipe then I photocopy it and then come over to your office and give it to you so it's just you and me. If I want to do it online, the odds are pretty good that we're going to do it on a social network or a blog or something like that. That means that the blog is all of the sudden a choke point something that people who want to keep us from doing this can exert control over. The way the law deals with this is with the notice of takedown under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), but that's just on the copyright owner's say-so. The copyright owner says "That's infringing!" and the site should take it down. You can get it back up, but you have to file a counter notice and it takes somewhere between 10 and 14 days. It's a lot of hassle. Copyright owners, through the DMCA, have a good deal of control over the way we communicate.

But because rights holders are often fickle about what they choose to have removed and what to leave alone, it's difficult to rely on the law for guidance. The result is that we the average users and consumers of the Internet are unsure of how to proceed when dealing with copyrighted works and either have to assume we have no rights or make our best guess and hope it doesn't lead to legal consequences.

It all comes down to this reality: you will often have to circumvent or ignore copyright law to go on with your regular activities. Fortunately, there are ways to handle these circumstances better and keep yourself out of trouble. In this post, we're going to look at specific situations you encounter on a regular basis and what you can do to protect yourself.

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How you break digital law daily (and what to do)

STEVE LADURANTAYE MEDIA REPORTER Published Monday, Mar. 05, 2012 9:59AM EST Last updated Monday, Mar. 05, 2012 10:58AM EST

Newspapers desperate to shift their businesses online are earning $1 in digital advertising revenue for every $7 they are losing in their print products.

The Pew Research Centers Project for Excellence in Journalism studied 38 newspapers in the United States, and cited cultural inertia for the papers inability to seize new revenue opportunities.

The industry is caught in a trap, the report states, where declining print revenues provide most of the money but digital revenue is the only category seeing growth.

Its reflected in their sales forces where print ad reps outnumber digital ad reps 3-to-1.

The shift to replace losses in print ad revenue with new digital revenue is taking longer and proving more difficult than executives want and at the current rate most newspapers continue to contract with alarming speed, the report stated, adding that the executives they interviewed considered replacing print revenue an existential issue.

The biggest challenge, the report stated, is that managers are convinced the old way of doing things will salvage whats left of their ad bases.

Newspaper executives described an industry still caught between the gravitational pull of the legacy tradition and the need to chart a faster digital course, the report stated. A number of them worried that their companies simply had too many people whether it be in the newsroom, the boardroom or on the sales staff who were too attached to the old way of doing things.

The study focused on smaller papers, since most U.S. papers fit in that category 22 have circulations under 25,000, seven have circulations between 25,000 and 50,000, and nine have circulations of 50,000 or more (including three with circulations more than 100,000).

While the study focused on American papers, Canadian newspaper owners face the same challenge.

Read this article:
U.S. newspapers slow to grow digital ad revenue: survey

STEVE LADURANTAYE MEDIA REPORTER Published Monday, Mar. 05, 2012 9:59AM EST Last updated Monday, Mar. 05, 2012 10:58AM EST

Newspapers desperate to shift their businesses online are earning $1 in digital advertising revenue for every $7 they are losing in their print products.

The Pew Research Centers Project for Excellence in Journalism studied 38 newspapers in the United States, and cited cultural inertia for the papers inability to seize new revenue opportunities.

The industry is caught in a trap, the report states, where declining print revenues provide most of the money but digital revenue is the only category seeing growth.

Its reflected in their sales forces where print ad reps outnumber digital ad reps 3-to-1.

The shift to replace losses in print ad revenue with new digital revenue is taking longer and proving more difficult than executives want and at the current rate most newspapers continue to contract with alarming speed, the report stated, adding that the executives they interviewed considered replacing print revenue an existential issue.

The biggest challenge, the report stated, is that managers are convinced the old way of doing things will salvage whats left of their ad bases.

Newspaper executives described an industry still caught between the gravitational pull of the legacy tradition and the need to chart a faster digital course, the report stated. A number of them worried that their companies simply had too many people whether it be in the newsroom, the boardroom or on the sales staff who were too attached to the old way of doing things.

The study focused on smaller papers, since most U.S. papers fit in that category 22 have circulations under 25,000, seven have circulations between 25,000 and 50,000, and nine have circulations of 50,000 or more (including three with circulations more than 100,000).

While the study focused on American papers, Canadian newspaper owners face the same challenge.

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Newspapers slow to grow digital ad revenues: survey

Let the fight begin ... Mark Bouris and Jeff Fenech. Illustration: John Shakespeare

Pretty-faced celebrity entrepreneur Mark Bouris might not look so photogenic in June. The Yellow Brick Road founder has agreed to take on the Marrickville Mauler and three-weight former world champion Jeff Fenech in the boxing ring.

''It may be a way to make some money. Mark Bouris may pay me not to hurt him,'' Fenech told CBD about the bout, which will raise money for the Nick Moore-chaired Police Boys' Club of NSW (aka PCYC).

The Punchbowl-raised Bouris better start practising his ducking skills. The 47-year-old Fenech has not trained this hard for years.

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''I have lost 13 kilograms in four weeks,'' said Fenech, who has dropped down to 76.5 kilograms. ''I feel good, ya know.

''Mark Bouris better be a wizard or he'll be in trouble.''

But Fenech's intense training program is not just about fitness.

''If I want to take my shirt off in the ring I want to look good. I still have a bit of an ego, so I don't want to look like an old fat thing.''

Bouris agreed to enter the event only after being pestered by the Inner Metro PCYC Sergeant Jim Duignan, who he met at the Woolloomooloo PCYC club where he sometimes trains.

Read more:
Mouth versus maul in Punchup at PCYC

by Manx National Heritage

This autumn, conservationists will be setting off on a voyage to the Calf of Man, a tiny island off the south western tip of the Isle of Man to help some very special seabirds the Manx Shearwaters.

Manx National Heritage (MNH), which owns the Calf and runs the bird observatory there, is being joined by a partnership of conservation organisations in a project to ensure the sustainable recovery of the Calfs Manx Shearwater population.

Manx National Heritage, is working with the Manx Wildlife Trust, Manx BirdLife, and the Department of Environment, Food and Agriculture, with substantial technical and practical assistance from the Food and Environment Research Agency (Fera), financial support in the form of a generous grant from the RSPB and funds from the MNH Trustees, to re-establish the Calf as a safe breeding location for Manx Shearwaters. The Isle of Man has a responsibility to help conserve the Manx Shearwater, a species of European Conservation Concern and registered on the Amber List of UK Birds of Conservation Concern, due to its declining range and localized breeding patterns. As much as 80 per cent of the world breeding population, just under 300,000, occurs in the British Isles, making the species vulnerable to adverse changes in breeding habitat, food supply or other factors. The species also has a special historical significance for the Isle of Man, as the Calfs colony of Manx Shearwaters were first described in an account of the Mank Puffin in The Ornithology of Francis Willughby published in 1678.

It is believed that Manx Shearwaters once occupied the Calf of Man in their thousands. The Manx Shearwater young were harvested annually in large numbers for their flesh and oil which must have taken a toll on the colony. However, the population declined catastrophically following the arrival of brown rats (longtails) on the Calf, believed to have been the result of a shipwreck in 1781. By the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Calf colony of Manx Shearwaters was all but wiped out as a result of rat predation of the chicks and possibly the eggs and even adult birds. Small numbers of Manx Shearwaters have managed to re-establish themselves on the Calf in recent years but a persistent residual population of rats remains a threat to the species, despite on-going rodent control since 1979. Following the unusually cold winter last year, however, the rat population appears to be at a low ebb, providing a rare opportunity to eradicate completely this non-native, highly invasive predatory mammal from the Calf and give our seabirds a better chance of breeding successfully.

Kate Hawkins of Manx National Heritage said: This is a really exciting project and a chance to regain the Calfs standing as the symbolic home of the Manx Shearwater. If we can achieve a longtail-free Calf, the prospects for other ground nesting birds are also much improved. I hope that the public will support this project and help us to save these wonderful birds. In addition to conserving the Manx Shearwater, the project is anticipated to provide a more favourable environment for crevice- and burrow-nesting birds such as Storm Petrels and Puffins, potentially leading to colonization and breeding. Both species are on the Amber List of UK Birds of Conservation Concern and the Puffin is of concern in a European context.

Other colonies of nesting seabirds are also anticipated to benefit including Shags, Lesser Black-backed gulls and Fulmars. All three species are Amber Listed, with Fulmars suffering a worrying 38% decline in UK numbers between 1999 and 2009.

As one of the 18 accredited bird observatories in the British Isles and an officially recognised bird observatory for 50 years, the Calf of Man has built up a large and scientifically valuable set of data about the birds which frequent or pass through the Isle of Man or occur in its coastal waters.

The project on the Calf of Man is supported by experts from the RSPB, who recently visited the island. In their follow-up report, the RSPB said: The benefits of a complete eradication of rats from the Calf are likely to be high a substantial increase in the numbers and distribution of shearwater burrows and possible re-colonization by storm petrels and puffins. Secondary positive effects on other breeding bird performance and wider biodiversity benefits (invertebrates, plants and even other small mammals) are also likely.

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Save Our Shearwaters!