What is intellectual property?
Intellectual property is a legal concept under which we manage the protection and use of products of the human mind (as opposed to the human hand). The U.S. Constitution and the "Federalist Papers" refer specifically to patents (which apply to "useful articles," traditionally inventions) and copyright (which applies to 'literary expressions,' traditionally books and articles) as comprising the scope of intellectual property. There have also been some more recent additions: Outside of patents and copyrights, there are such things as trademarks and service marks (like "Coca Cola"), "trade dress" (a more amorphous concept involving the "look" of a product, like Coca Cola's red & white can with a script logo), "trade secrets" and others.
All of these separate areas of the law and commerce have been collected under the general term "intellectual property." However, they are very different from each other and are meant to protect different things.
Is copyright law the same for words, pictures, movies, music and software?
Yes, for the most part. Sure, it's easy to download and reproduce materials that you might find on the Web, but that doesn't make it lawful. Technically speaking, copyright law does deal differently with various media like music and software. But these differences tend to be largely technical and are outweighed by the similarities in the law's application.
Is copyright infringement always criminal?
No. It can be a criminal violation - with possible prison penalties. But it is most often a civil violation. That means the copyright holder needs to sue an infringer. If the infringement is proven, the rightsholder will get money either commensurate with the damage to the owner or with the benefit gained by the infringer. There may possibly be statutory damages and an order (injunction) for the infringement to cease. In both civil and criminal cases, the statute of limitations for infringement is generally three years.
You were saying?
If you're standing in court one day, charged with breaking the copyright of a software, please, for your sake, don't bring out the "car" arguement.
