Jason Hardin’s lecture on copyright is a very imperative topic that every person, especially college-aged students, should hear. I feel it was important that we were listening to this lecture in our computer class, because much of the copyright issues stem from the rapid changes and development in technology. These issues have not only increased but have become more complex with time. I’m not sure how most people view copyright, but one thing I was intrigued by was the fact that Hardin kept on bringing up that copyright is ultimately a good thing. Does our society not view it that way? It was created to protect our rights as individuals, not to hinder them. Our founding fathers used copyright as an incentive for people to be creative and inventive knowing that there work will be recognized as their own. I also find it interesting that Disney has had such a pull on the copyright law. They were able to lobby to increase the copyright law by 20yrs. I feel Disney’s efforts are legitimate, because Disney is a huge company in our economy and whatever affects them, could have a huge impact on our economy.
One of the most pressing issues with copyright is the illegal downloading of music and movies. This is a very common trend among the college-aged demographic. There are two extremely influential sides to this argument. The first side is the creators right to the music or movies. They have these items for sale, and since they created it, they own the right to it. However, the other side is that of the illegal downloader. In many cases these downloader’s mean no harm. They are generally good people, but need a cheaper option to listening to music or watching a movie. It is only a few clicks away to get exactly what you want to watch or listen to. This is wrong though. I side with the creator of the music or movie. They worked really hard to create this entertainment and we are dimensioning it by buying it unlawfully. It is the consumers duty as ethical citizens to purchase products lawfully.
One way we could work towards changing this problem, is educating more people about this problem. If more people understood what they doing and the impact of downloading illegal, they would try not to. Also, the music and movies industry way of handling the copyright issues aren’t good either. They should get retribution for having their products stolen; however, the way they go about it is wrong. Because they go after only a few people, and charge them an obscene amount of money, others feel there is a slim chance this could ever happen to them. The consequences are too small of a chance to actually make a change. Hopefully as technology increases and copyright issues become more complex, they become easier to enforce as well.
Jason Hardin Copyright Lecture by Autumn Goodin is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
I liked your post. You up some interesting points.
ReplyDeleteIt is all too easy for people our age to illegally download thousands of songs without appreciating what could happen.
ReplyDeleteAutumn you make a very good point about the music industry going after only a select few and ruining there financial career.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that peoople need to be more educated...but i think that as technology becomes more advanced and copyrights issues become more complex, it will probably become even harder to enforce
ReplyDeleteThe only problem is that musicians hardly make anything from album sales in the first place. All that money gets consumed by the recording industry. The fast majority of a musician's revenue comes from ticket sales for concerts (which is by far the best way to support an artist). Because illegal downloading hardly does anything to the musician in the first place, the penalties are FAR too strict. Look at They Might Be Giants. They had to create their own custom music store just to keep money that would otherwise be eaten by the RIAA. Corruption in the recording industry needs resolution before we can fix the problem of piracy.
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