vicarious liability of parents for copyright infringement by minors

Abstract

Vicarious liability is one of the types of responsibilities arising from other's action. In US law, unlike Iranian legal system, there is a general rule upon which whenever under the control persons, commits a copyright infringement and thereby a financial benefit get to the supervisor, the latter, shall be subject to the vicarious liability. Undoubtedly, children are among the most prominent examples of persons under the control that this usually occurs by their parents. Furthermore, in Current age, it is possible that many infringements occur by children, especially in the Internet. Parents will generally be subject to the vicarious liability for copyright infringements their children. In US law, has been suggested the probability of parental responsibility for copyright by children based on the general rule of vicarious responsibility, while it seems that the nature of the relationship between parents and children and the bases of suggesting parental liability for children's fault, demands some differences in this regard. Parental responsibility for children's torts in Iranian law, unlike US law, is based on fault and care rather than control and compliance, and this is an advantage of Iranian law.

Keywords

• vicarious liability
• infringement
• copyright
• minors
• financial benefit