a simple essay
Sep30
Copy Rights
I would like to tell you that my original plan was to describe the
internet. It is a most fabulous tool that has revolutionized society
and life. But one that is so complex and grand that it approaches
abstract reasoning and is far too hard and difficult to explain in a
simple essay. I hope it makes you happy that you won’t be bored by
technical talk, and geek hyperbole. Instead, there is something in
society that needs to be addressed and was brought about by the
grandness of the internet; this is copyright infringement.
So what are copyrights? Copyrights are easy to describe. They are
exclusive intellectual property rights given to an author. An author
being defined as anyone who created the intellectual property, and
intellectual property being defined as any original work on any
tangible object. For example, Bob makes a poem, not a very good one,
but a poem nonetheless. Bob’s poem is an original work, it is also
intellectual property, and once written down is eligible for copyright,
which are rights given to Bob on the copying of his poem. The exclusive
rights of copyrighting, which can be divisible and individually
assigned, are the following: reproduction, adaptation, distribution,
public performance, and public display. So, therefore, Bob has the
sole right to reproduce, adapt to another format, distribute, perform,
or display his poem.
This is pretty basic stuff that most anyone understands, and if life
were ever this easy, I doubt anyone would be held accountable for
copyright infringement. However, this world is not simple, and thanks
to technology and the internet, copyright infringement throughout the
world wide web is rampant. I do confess, I infringe on copyrights, yet
the nature of computers, and the internet, mask the infringement.
You’re probably wondering how? Well, let me explain to you.
Most of the infringement that happens from the web is more likely
related to web pages. Web pages, which are original works on a tangible
object (Hard drives and other electronic media has been declared
protectable by the courts), are mostly likely copyrighted. Whenever you
surf to a page using your web browser (the programs that let you
surf the web,
the most popular being Internet Explorer and
Netscape), your web browser copies the page from its location in the
internet onto your computer. It also copies other things on that page,
like graphics and maybe sounds. This act is considered copyright
infringement using current laws, since you copy, without permission of
the author, their original work onto your computer. You should be
ashamed! Though since this copying is required for you to see the
published material on display, it is generally disregarded.
However, there are other programs in the internet who’s only purpose
appears to be copyright infringement. These programs have been in the
media spotlight in the past few months, most noticeably: Napster.
Napster is a program that lets you search for songs, and copy them to
your computer. Obviously, this is a severe case of infringement. The
RIAA, or Record Industry of America Association, has, along with other
associations, proceeded with legal action against the companies that
produce such programs, which take no account of the rights of the
copyright holder.
For example, songs, which are copyrighted works, are licensed to
people for personal use through the transaction of selling CDs. People
are allowed to make copies of these CDs as backups, or make a
compilation of songs out of the many CDs they may have collected, this
all falls into “fair use.” Fair use, though an easy phrase, is hard to
understand and can be defined with the four following rules: the
purpose of use for which the work is copied, the character of the work
in which the copying is shown, amount of copying and the market impact
that the copy has. Going back to Bob’s Poem, if someone made an
original work with a small part of Bob’s poem, yet it was beneficial to
society, it could be said it was in fair use. However if Bob’s poem
were quoted in anything but an academic paper, because of the
fictitious disposition of Bob’s poem, any such copying is not
considered fair use. The amount of the work and what part of the poem
someone could quote or talk about in their own work also defines fair
use. If for example the principal part of the poem were used in a work
which revolves on the same topic as Bob’s poem, that would not classify
as fair use. Lastly, any copies or distributions that harm Bob’s income
from his poem are not fair use.
Programs like Napster have their roots in fair use. With the birth
of the internet and a now very known file format (type of file used in
computers ie. documents, or docs, are a file format) called mp3. The
beginnings of mp3 started like blank tapes, as a way to copy and hear
licensed music on a computer, where you can make a compilation of your
favorite songs from your CD collection. Yet the easy use of the
internet allowed the fast sharing of such files, and it became easy to
find popular songs on the web. Though some uses of programs like
Napster are legal, like space-shifting, or the copying of licensed
songs from two computers you own, and what some call previewing, the
biggest use of Napster is that which infringes on copyrights, or
downloading songs without paying for the rights to hear them.
And so, I am left to think. Copyright infringement is a problem. Be
it a problem in a large scale, with mp3s and programs like Napster, or
a nuisance in the case of causal web surfing, it is a problem. What
some don’t understand is that copyrighting was developed to protect the
author, and that only with today’s technology has this noble idea
become a nuisance. As society changes, our ideas of copyrights and
intellectual property must also change.
Works Cited
Van Buskirk, Eliot “Napster’s Brazen Legal Approach”
CNET Music Center < http://music.cnet.com > (7 July, 2000)
Lee, A.T. “Copyright 101 a Brief Introduction to Copyrights
for Fan Fiction Authors” Woosh! Online Edition 25 (1998)
< http://www.whoosh.com >