Burden Of Proof In Copyright Infringement Matters

In a civil copyright infringement claim, many users of copyrighted material are surprised to learn that once the copyright owner has demonstrated that it owns a copyright in the work, the burden shifts to the copyright user to demonstrate that it had the right to use the work in the way it was using it.  For copyrighted software use, this means that not only must the user have a valid license, the use case must fall within the scope of the license terms. Software publishers actively protect their copyrighted material by pursuing audits of its consumers either directly or through entities such as BSA|The Software Alliance, or the Software & Information Industry Association ("SIIA").