QotW3: Sharing, Copyright and Creative culture

ASSIGNMENT2

All over the world, public schools are spending lesser than three percent of their budgets each year on textbooks and other copyrighted works--approximately $5.4 billion out of current expenditures of well over $200 billion. Many teachers and students are either doing without the material or pirating it. One study found that some 32 percent of 1,349 participants had illegally copied software.

Copyright???

Copyright provides one with the legal rights over subject matter (Circular 92, 2003). This “one” refers to the content creators themselves. It prevents unauthorized replication of any kind of material ranging from written work to music cds.

Copyright allows the creators to gain financially from their inventions which in fact, becomes their motivation to continue inventing. The public also benefit from this as they also use information or the entire invention to meet certain needs. Most of them the time, creations are meant to be used by the public. For instance, how does a singer benefit if his albums are not selling? How does a novelist succeed if his or her novels are not being read?


Problem!!!

However, this ‘usage’ of information by the public in an illegal way is what that leads to encroachment of property that is not theirs. For example, plagiarism in blogs without proper citation, photocopying, duplicating masterpieces in paintings as art ‘practice’, pirated vcds and so on.

How it works?

Putting ourselves in the shoes of the creator, creation is a miracle of life; from metamorphose to the realization of the new idea. It is something that could only happen to a few people in a life time. Along with that of course, the lucky ones would jealously want to protect the invention, make it rare and precious so that they can make a good fortune out of it. "Rules are made to be broken". In the majority people who cannot impregnate an invention, some would not accept the inferiority complex, but rather to exercise their wit and skills to take away the original invention, embellish it, and create a new version of product, sold it cheaper and in big volume, so that they can make a good fortune out of it. This is the current situation in concerning music albums.

Sometimes, the thief outwits the creator, by giving out the product at the same time with the original (Circular 92, 2003). Most of the time, the copy product is cheaper and comes out abundantly, making it affordable to common people who survive paycheck by paycheck. This is especially true for products that correspond to human basic needs.

Way out???

So what should we do? Implement some sort of Microsoft-like product activation system? No, I do not think that is a solution.

Here in the information age, virtually all intellectual creations can be protected by some form of intellectual property law. Intellectual property (IP) segments the universe of intellectual creations into three domains: copyrights, trademarks and patents. In a nutshell, copyright protects expression, trademark protects names, and patents protect ideas.
However it is argued that intellectual property laws need to balance the interests of creators with different motivations, not just the interests of those creators seeking economic benefits with the public interest.

For some, economics are the reason for creative expression. However, for many, there are non-monetary reasons for creative works. In a democratic system, freedom of expression about our political beliefs and perceptions of what is happening in the world is absolutely essential. While a few of us write and sing for a living, families and communities throughout the ages have been sharing stories and song with no expectation of monetary reward. Academics write research articles for impact, not for money. A great many people do volunteer work of many forms; creative works sometimes arise from these efforts. Intellectual property laws and procedures designed specifically to guard economic interests may impede the goals of creators in this sense.

For example, if the work of an author who freely shares his or her work, with the hope that many will read it, is placed behind an anti-circumvention barrier, then this particular IP protection is thwarting and not helping the goals of this creator.
Therefore another possible solution can be the approach which is most likely to accommodate these varying needs of creators and the public is one based on the Creative Commons approach (Circular 92,2003), rather than traditional copyright law. The beauty of the Creative Commons approach is that it allows for IP protection for the creator who wants it, but also freedom to share for the creator with different motives. It is up to the creator to select from a variety of options, from retaining all rights to retaining commercial rights but allowing education uses, to retaining commercial rights in the developed world and allowing free use in the developing world.


Wrapping up:)

Although the solutions I mentioned can help, their impact may not be lasting unless there is a change in mindset among the public. The public must realize that intrusion of materials that do not belong to them is not only illegal but morally incorrect.

They should think from the view of creators, considering how disastrous it is when your creation is being stolen by others you do not even know. The public must thoroughly understand why it is wrong to duplicate another’s work and use them for their own benefits.

Unless this happens, a balance to accommodate both content creators and the public cannot be fully achieved.




References


Crews, K. D. (30 April, 2001). “The expiration of copyright protection: survey and analysis of U.S copyright law and analysis of U.S copyright law for identifying the public domain. Retrieved on January 31, 2007 fromhttp://www.dml.indiana.edu/pdf/dml-copyright-duration-report.pdf

Circular 92 (2003). Act. 106. US Copyright Law of the United States of America and Related Laws Contained in Title 17 of the United States Code. US Government Printing Office. Retrieved on January 31, 2007, fromhttp://www.copyright.gov/title17/circ92.pdf


Recording Industry Association of America, n.d. In Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 23:20, February 1, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riaa


Litman, J. (2003). Sharing and Stealing. Social Science Research Network. Retrieved February 1, 2007 from http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=472141