Copyright in the Digital Age
A common topic in this information age is copyright and copyright infringement issues. Copyright is a set of rights given by law to the creator or author of a piece of work to publish, sell, copy and distribute the work. This right gives the author or creator an interest and authority to control the commercial and legal distribution of the work to encourage creativity and give royalties to the owner. One needs permission from the owner of the work so that he can access the piece of work failure to which he is liable for prosecution.
Breyer (281) argues that due to the growth of information in the internet, people are able to access music, movies, television shows, books and other digital materials. They can access these materials and download them from different sites. This leads to issues of copyright infringement. A lot of debate has been raised by different individuals and bodies about copyright infringement with some groups calling for strict copyright laws on these materials while on the other side, other groups demand that information in the internet should not be restricted and guided by copyright infringement. This paper seeks to analyze copyright infringement in the digital age.
Vast information materials are available in the internet. These includes music materials, movies, television shows, radio stations, research articles, online books and other materials that can be accessed and downloaded from different sites in the internet. (Standler, 18) says that the owners of these materials have the rights to copy, derive, sell, rent, lease, lend, perform, dramatize and publicly perform out of their work. The internet is currently viewed as a major threat to copyright laws.
Since the information in the internet have different degrees of copyright laws, it becomes difficult to observe the infringements. It is worth noting that even the website content such as links, text, pictures, audio materials, video materials and other html contents are copyrighted. It is a fact that it is from these copyrighted works that people download materials, crack, hack and illegally access copyrighted materials. The main question is; is it wrong for one to access the information and use it without observing the copyright infringement laws?
Why Copyright Should Be Guarded Zealously
Some people believe that copyright infringement of information in the internet do not have weight as compared to the information in the traditional printed world. (Feather, 15) explains that one of the reasons why we should guard the copyright of these materials is because we violate the rights of the author or creator. Though this practice may be seen as easy and convenient to our problems when we are accessing these materials, it harms the creator more. We should respect the ideas and intellect of the creator so that originality of every work can be guaranteed.
It is also worth noting that when a creator comes up with a piece of work or idea, in most cases they usually go through a number of expenses of both time and money. For example, recording music takes time and money. It is important that the owner should earn his or her royalties so that they gain from their investment.
Copyright is also important in copyright registration where the author becomes responsible for the piece of work. A public record can be established from the owner and a claim can be established in the piece of work. In some cases, the work may attract illegal actions especially when the work is defaming. The author can be traced for legal actions.
Digital Information to Be Free for All
The information on the internet should be left free to all for a number of reasons. First is the vast information in the internet that makes it hard to know what kind of information belongs to whom in the internet. The growth of e-business and ecommerce allows for circulation of a number of materials that may be hard to restrict. Though these materials lead to the growth of internet business, restricting them may lead to reduced rate of internet business.
It is also becoming needless since so many people are stealing these materials through downloading from sites that encourage free download. (Hettinger, 31) argues that the culture of this generation promotes the act of stealing since other people obtain their copies of materials legally and end up sharing with friends freely. This makes it pointless to copyright the materials.
We also have the hackers and crackers who can access other restricted information in the internet. Since this information is protected by codes that they know how to unlock, it becomes easy for them to unlock and access these materials. The argument is that why should I buy a material when others avail it for free. People end up circulating all these materials and sharing them at no cost.
Other bodies like the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and other big groups governing copyright laws end up applying these rights incorrectly. They use unfair claims to the people who they think are infringing the laws which in some cases may include kids or even dead people. They end up drawing large sums of money from these people and what is given back to the owner of the material is smaller than the portion they remain with.
Conclusion
It is evident that copyright laws play a major role in shaping access of information materials in the internet. The information in this digital age has increased leading to violation of copyright laws. Copyright laws should be strictly enforced in the internet so that the authors benefit from their work. It is unfair to have all these information accessed and used without their permission. Therefore, copyright laws should be strictly followed so that originality and respect is given to ideas.
Works Cited
Breyer, Stephen. The Uneasy Case for Copyright: A Study of Copyright in Books, Photocopies and Computer Programs. Harvard Law Review, 1.2 (1970): 12-34.
Feather, John. Publishing, Piracy and Politics: An Historical Study of Copyright in Britain. London: Mansell, 1994.
Hettinger, Edward. Justifying Intellectual Property. Philosophy and Public Affairs, 2.3 (1989): 13-19.
Standler, Ronald. Some Observations on Copyright Law. Web.