The internet is a vast and wonderful place where many people go to find knowledge, friendship, and sometimes even love. They call the internet the information highway and with good reason. But what happens when the internet we all love so dearly starts becoming a place to infringe upon certain rights?
Lets talk about copyright and what it is. Copyright is a form of protection grounded in the U.S. Constitution and granted by law for original works of authorship fixed in a tangible medium of expression. Copyright covers both published and unpublished works. Copyright, a form of intellectual property law, protects original works of authorship including literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works, such as poetry, novels, movies, songs, computer software, and architecture. (http://www.copyright.gov/). In short pretty much everything created by an individual, corporation or company is copyrighted work. Such as the movies you go see and the books and CD's you buy.
That being said, with the internet and it's ability to connect and share things with people all over the world it's important to understand what copyright infringement is and how the internet effects it.
According to the U.S. Copyright Office:
A Copyright is a bundle of exclusive rights. Section 106 of the copyright law provides the owner of copyright in a work the exclusive right:
To reproduce the work in copies;
To prepare derivative works based upon the work;
To distribute copies of the work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending;
To perform the work publicly;
To display the copyrighted work publicly
In the case of sound recordings, to perform the work publicly by means of a digital audio transmission.
Section 501 of the copyright law states that “anyone who violates any of the exclusive rights of the copyright owner ...is an infringer of the copyright or right of the author.”
(Information taken from the U.S. Copyright Office)
The problem with this is millions off people have access to the internet and with that access comes all kind of piracy whether it be movies, music, TV shows, and or books. Bartering and giving these things away for free to other people without giving profit to the original owner of the work is an infringement on copyright laws.
The internet has made it easier to share these kinds of things with people. There are whole websites like Tumblr that are pretty much dedicated to making artwork with screencaps from movies, TV shows, and music videos. All the artwork that is made is obviously owned by the artist, but the images used are owned by the network and technically using them is copyright infringement, just like the main banner on this website with the Disney characters is.
Creativity versus piracy
Intellectual property rights provide the foundation upon which innovation is shared, creativity encouraged and consumer trust reinforced. But the digital world poses a new challenge — how to manage the balance when the consumer is the creator, when the marginal cost of copying is zero, when enforcement of existing law is extremely difficult, and when “free” access to information and content is considered by many to be a right. (http://www.itu.int/net/itunews/issues/2011/07/38.aspx)
The problem with this is it is difficult to enforce copyright infringement online, which is why it's so hard to stop piracy online. It's really a double edged sword for networks and large corporations because the online presences actually helps their movies, music, and television do better and it spreads the words, so they want online participation and free advertisements. But that also means it's harder to know where to draw the line.
Resources:
The Library of Congress. (2014). Stopping Copyright Infringement. Retrieved from http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-infringement.html
International Telecommunications Union. (2014) Intellectual property rights in Today's digital economy. Retrieved from http://www.itu.int/net/itunews/issues/2011/07/38.aspx
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