What is the Access Defence in copyright?

What is the Access Defence in copyright?

• A. If your song was created before the other song existed, you cannot have copied it.
• B. Access defense applies only if the works were released in the same year.
• C. Access defense requires direct evidence of copying.
• D. Access defense is never applicable.

Answer: (A)

Access defense hinges on whether the defendant had a real opportunity to copy the plaintiff’s work. If the work that’s claimed to be copied didn’t exist yet when the other work was created, there was no opportunity to copy, so copying cannot be shown. In this scenario, if your song was created before the other song existed, the other work could not have copied from yours, and the access defense would apply to negate infringement on the copying element. The other statements misstate how access works: access isn’t limited to releases in the same year, and copying can be proven with or without direct evidence of copying if access is shown, and access defense isn’t “never applicable” in all cases.

Access defense hinges on whether the defendant had a real opportunity to copy the plaintiff’s work. If the work that’s claimed to be copied didn’t exist yet when the other work was created, there was no opportunity to copy, so copying cannot be shown. In this scenario, if your song was created before the other song existed, the other work could not have copied from yours, and the access defense would apply to negate infringement on the copying element.

The other statements misstate how access works: access isn’t limited to releases in the same year, and copying can be proven with or without direct evidence of copying if access is shown, and access defense isn’t “never applicable” in all cases.