What is copyright?
Copyright is seen as being something which protects your ideas from other people copying them ‘Copyright is the right to prevent others copying or reproducing an individuals or other’s work. Copyright protects the expression of an idea and not the idea itself’ Ward, (2004 P.71).
As in England and America copyright began as a common law. ‘Copyright has its origins in the 16th century’ Ward. (2004 P.72) and it was initially only concerned with printed material such as books, ‘...in 1556, a system of registration of books was established to offer protection to authors’ Ward, (2004, P.72). However, AD Hoc changes over the next 200 years to gradually include additional types of material. Statutory copyright was first established by 1709 copyright act. ‘A statutory license is a license whose key terms are set by law’ Lessig, (2004 P.57). In 1709 America establishes its first copyright law which is emended from the English copyright law. The power to establish ‘creative property’ rights were included in the US constitution, ‘Congress has the power to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors. The exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.’ US constitution, (article 1, section B, Clause B). The copyright law secures copyright for 14 years and allows the author the opportunity to renew for a further period of 14 years. After this maximum period of 28 years the work was entered to the public domain and could be freely used. In 1909 the renewal terms were increased by another 28 years. Also ‘After the congress’s amendment of the Copyright Act in 1909, record companies were free to distribute copies of recordings so long as they paid the composer ( or copyright holder) the fee set by the statute.’ Lessig (2004 P.57.) Copyright terms extended 11 times since 1962. And finally in 1976 the United States abandoned the renewal principle in favour of one maximum copyright term; life plus 50 years for individuals, and life plus 75 years for corporations.
As in England and America copyright began as a common law. ‘Copyright has its origins in the 16th century’ Ward. (2004 P.72) and it was initially only concerned with printed material such as books, ‘...in 1556, a system of registration of books was established to offer protection to authors’ Ward, (2004, P.72). However, AD Hoc changes over the next 200 years to gradually include additional types of material. Statutory copyright was first established by 1709 copyright act. ‘A statutory license is a license whose key terms are set by law’ Lessig, (2004 P.57). In 1709 America establishes its first copyright law which is emended from the English copyright law. The power to establish ‘creative property’ rights were included in the US constitution, ‘Congress has the power to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors. The exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.’ US constitution, (article 1, section B, Clause B). The copyright law secures copyright for 14 years and allows the author the opportunity to renew for a further period of 14 years. After this maximum period of 28 years the work was entered to the public domain and could be freely used. In 1909 the renewal terms were increased by another 28 years. Also ‘After the congress’s amendment of the Copyright Act in 1909, record companies were free to distribute copies of recordings so long as they paid the composer ( or copyright holder) the fee set by the statute.’ Lessig (2004 P.57.) Copyright terms extended 11 times since 1962. And finally in 1976 the United States abandoned the renewal principle in favour of one maximum copyright term; life plus 50 years for individuals, and life plus 75 years for corporations.
Copyright law was initially intended to protect intangible properties, that, that is not physical property. For example if you own a book and you stand on it you are not breaking copyright laws because the actual physical book itself is not copyrighted, it is the content which is in the book that is copyrighted so you can’t do what you want with it. Having copyright laws stops a person from copying other peoples work or stealing ideas which is fair for the copyright holders. However, it doesn’t allow people to adapt and change others ideas. This could be argued however to encourage creativity not hinder it, ‘Originality is a fundamental principle of copyright. It implies that the author or artist created the work through his or her own skill, labour, and judgement.’ Vaidhyanathen (2001 P.20). This statement surely supports the idea that copyright is not an enemy of creativity as it forces people to come up with brand new, original ideas rather than just adapting already existing ones. Also without copyright laws anyone could claim to have invented or written something and the actual inventor could not be credited on his or hers work.
Case study
There is a lot of evidence to support that copyright laws are an enemy of creativity and when supposedly broken they can have terrible consequences. In late 2002 Jesse James was a freashman at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York and he was majoring in information technology. ‘Though he is not a programmer, in October Jesse decided to tinker with search engine technology that was available on the RPI network’. Lessig (2004 P.48). He ‘tinkered’ with a Google-like search engine which allowed other students to up load pictures and notes onto it. Jesse’s s search engine became popular and it included things which were available on the RPI network. There were however music files which other students had uploaded into their public folder ‘Jesse did nothing to induce people to put music files into their public folder. He did nothing to target the search engine to these files.’ Lessig (2004 P50) On the 3rd of April he was notified that the ‘Recording Industry Association’ would be filing a lawsuit against him and three other students that he did not no. Jesse did not believe that he had done anything wrong and claimed he was just making the search engine easier to use. He was fined with $150,000 per infringement which all together totalled to over $15,000,000. All he had done was play around with computer and internet technology as he was studying it, how is it fair that he was fined so much basically doing nothing wrong. Between the years of 1790 and 1800 only 5% of works created were registered for copyright. Now nearly everything is copyrighted. Even borrowing a CD from a friend is illegal. '95% of music downloads are illegal'
This newspaper article from 2009 is one I found whilst doing my research for this blog it talks about what may happen to you if you download illegaly!
The increasing laws and lack of freedom we have is going to put people off trying new things in case somebody has already copyrighted or patent an idea and they end up getting sued for millions of dollars. People now have to worry about whether or not what they are doing is legal or not. internet is more than the fine for a doctor negligently butchering a patient (approx $250,000)’ Lessig (2004 P.185), people who do often never publish or produce them ‘We drive creative process underground...’ Lessig (2004 P.185). It can also be seen to be an unconstructive law, for example ‘Myriad genetics’ have brought the copyright for a gene which is thought to be linked with breast cancer. This means that they own the right over the gene. The problem which occurs from this is that they can allow or even disallow others to study the gene. They can give a license to whoever they want. Essentially this means that someone may have been able to find a cure for breast cancer but ‘Myriad genetics’ have denied them a license. This shows that the copyright law has gone too far, anything can be copyrighted even parts of the human body. Having such strict and so many copyright laws as this essay shows is an enemy when it comes to creativity. ‘...regulations that pass under the name ‘copyright’ silence speech and creativity’ Lessig (2004 P.187).
References
Lessig. L, 2004, Free culture: The nature and future of creativity. London, The Penguin Press.
Vaidhyanathan. S. 2001, Copyrights and Copywrongs: The rise of intellectual property and how it threatens creativity. New York, New York University press.
Ward. M. 2004 The Law and Intellectual Property: The complete guied to all aspects of intellectual property. Brighton. Straightforward publishing.
No named author, 2009, 95% of music downloads are illegal Belfasttelegraph.co.uk, 18th January. Available at: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/lifestyle/technology-gadgets/95-of-music-downloads-are-illegal-14145599.html Last Accessed: 10/01/11
No named author. 2009. Illegal downloading: What happens if you're caught? theindependant.co.uk, 8th July. Available at:http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/features/illegal-downloading-what-happens-if-youre-caught-1736013.html Last Accessed: 10/01/11
Images
Copyright Available at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikeblogs/3020966666/ Last Accessed: 10/01/11
Dollar Available at:http://www.yearn2earncash.com/links/ Last Accessed: 10/01/11
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