Fair use is a doctrine that refers to a use of copyrighted material that does not infringe or violate the exclusive

rights of the copyright holder. Fair use is an important and well established limitation on the exclusive right of copyright owners. Examples of fair use include the making of braille copies or audio recordings of books for use by visually challenged persons, and the making of video recordings of broadcast television programs or films by individuals for certain private, noncommercial use.
One of the main threats faced by a copyright holder these days is online piracy. The liability for copyright infringement is based on the three principles:

Direct Infringement: When the exclusive rights of a copyright holder are violated by another person, it is direct infringement. Vicarious Liability: When a person with the ability and right to prevent an infringement fails to do so (mainly because of the benefits derived), it is vicarious liability. Contributory Liability: When a person or party contributes to or induces an infringement activity carried out by another, it is contributory liability.

Intellectual Property perils over the Internet One of the basic questions to be attended before dealing the issue in question is that whether the Internet is a tool to destroy Intellectual Property. Is it a threat for Intellectual Property? The answer obviously seems to me to be No. The intensity of innovation and emergence of new technologies merely enabled dissemination of knowledge/information in unprecedented manner. These technological developments paved way for an upsurge in the demand for strengthening of Intellectual Property protection. There had been an unexpected development of Internet combined with the explosive internet user base. With such increase the policing of the Intellectual Property have become one of the toughest jobs to accomplish. Copyright Infringement Liability Copyright is an exclusive statutory right of literary (authors, playwrights, poets), musical (composers, musicians), visual (painters, photographers, sculptors), and other artists to control the reproduction, use, and disposition of their work.[12] Article 27 paragraph 2 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) provides as a basic right that everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and mater ial interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author. Thus it guarantees protection against copyright infringement. Several countries consider copyright as basic right of property. Worldwide there exists country specific Copyright Laws. US has US Copyright Act, 1976, UK has The Copyright, Designs & Patent Act, 1988. Apart from it countries have technology based copyright laws as in US Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Anyone who, without the authorization of the copyright owner, exercises any of the exclusive rights of a copyright owner, as granted and limited by the Copyright Act of the land, is an infringer of copyright. Copyright infringement is determined without regard to the intent or the state of mind of the infringer; "innocent" infringement is infringement nonetheless. Before entering into the ambit of Search Engines and there liabilities it would be prudent to first get acquainted with the types of liabilities in copyright infringement. Direct Liability To succeed on a claim for direct copyright infringement, a plaintiff must prove two elements: (1) Ownership of the copyrighted material, and 2) Violation of one of the exclusive rights of the copyright owner by the defendant. Unauthorized copying is the most common form of direct infringement. Direct infringement includes performance or adaptation made without the authors permission. Vicarious Liability Courts have imposed vicarious liability where parties 1) receive a direct financial benefit from the infringement; and 2) they have the right and ability to supervise or control the infringement. Vicarious copyright infringement initially was conceived as an outgrowth of the agency principles of respondeat superior. In Playboy Enterprises, Inc. v. Frena [13]the court found a Bulletin Board Service

(BBS) operator vicariously liable for permitting the unauthorized uploading of images from the plaintiffs magazine to the Internet for commercial gain. Contributory Liability

The doctrine of contributory infringement arises out of the theory of enterprise liability. It states that liability should attach whenever a person knowingly contributes to the illegal conduct of another. In the Internet world, contributory liability will attach if a party knows, or reasonably should know, of infringing activities occurring on the partys website, and the party materially contributes to the infringement Contributory liability with regard to copyright infringement over th e Internet may be used here as laying down the parameters for contributory liability where it is found that an intermediary(1) with knowledge of the infringing activity, (2) induces, causes or materially contributes to the infringing conduct of another.