Copyright & Me

When talking about copyright you have to remember that it is an ongoing debate with various people against copyright laws and others in defence of copyright laws. Copyright is defined as a form of intellectual property which gives the creator of an original work or copyright owner exclusive rights for a certain time period in relation to that work, including its publication, distribution and adaptation; after which time the work is said to enter the public domain.

Some of the reasons why people may be against copyright laws is that a lot of people feel that copyright poses problems for online culture. Cory Doctrow looks at issues with copyright and why it shouldn’t be a problem. He makes an argument for the inappropriate application of copyright to the internet. His definition of culture is shared information; all the conversing, retelling, singing, acting out, drawing and thinking is culture. Doctrow says ‘On the Internet, copying is automatic, massive, instantaneous, free, and constant’. The reason for this is because we live in a culture where we share information and the reason why copyright is valuable is because culture exists. ‘If there was no market for creative works, there'd be no reason to care about copyright’. (Doctrow)
Another point people against copyright would make is that there is no difference between lending out a CD or a DVD to a friend and sharing a file with them. It is not copyright to lend someone a CD but as soon as a computer and the internet is involved it is; why is this? A lot of people would also agree with Doctorow’s ideas that copyright doesn’t actually work in practice because ‘No matter how hard you adhere to them, you're probably breaking the law’, so why not just do it anyway?

People for copyright are mostly those who are publishers or creators of content. They are for copyright as they feel these laws will protect people from their work and also protect their wallets, as they do no get paid for work that is copied. Some companies and organisations use the term ‘fair use’, which means using someone else’s documents or work without making it useful for money or making a profit unless you’ve required the permission from the rights holders. The only problem with this term is that most people that download do it for personal and social reasons; it only applies to people who do not intend to make copies to sell them, which means that publishers and creators still loose out on money as their product is still being circulated. However Doctrow would argue that fair use is something positive for producers as ‘it would become more popular the more people share it’.

I personally think that file sharing shouldn’t be a problem as long as people aren’t doing it to make a profit. I agree with Doctrow when he says that culture is shared information and that if file sharing was banned and taken off the internet, culture would die with it as the internet is how people communicate and express ideas to one another. I personally know that my friends and I are always sharing music files, and why shouldn’t we? We aren’t harming anyone by sharing the music we love between one another. When I copy a movie from a friend’s pc it’s not because I have an ulterior motive but simply because I want to see a film. I will copyfight till the end because I don’t want the internet to loose its culture.