Piracy: Sharing is Caring

First off, I would like to say that this video from this week’s unit was quite interesting and has cleared up a lot of foggy information about copyright for me. I have a new understanding and a new grasp on how this whole thing works now. This unit has greatly extended my knowledge and understanding of copyright and also changes the views that I had previously in the semester.

These units first made me realize that copyright issues and piracy laws are in great need in society. Before I always thought that the copyright was to protect the artist from others copying their works, which is true, but people who take their works are usually using it only to share their information, not copy their work. These readings and also the movie have changed the way I think about copyright law.

Lots of artists before use to make their money though just selling their records. Now they have many different means to make money through clothing lines, shoe lines and much more. So there is a definite need for copyright laws to protect these artists’ ideas from being taken.

Although I do see benefits to artist as the result of piracy. Many artists make money through music by selling other merchandise and not solely relying on albums to sell. Because people are always downloading music and sharing their friends and family, this is how artist get recognized. This allows the future sellings of their work. Basically, I think that sharing music is a good thing.

I do think that there is some downfalls that the music industry will be experience through privacy to a certain degree. Because it is so easy to obtain so much music illegally, many people don’t like to pay $1 for a song when they can download it though sites like Napster and Limewire for free. This causes major losses for companies like iTunes.

The music industry has been highly affected by piracy and its laws and of course the most frequent users that are at risk are the younger generation college students. So is there a balance of what or how much can be downloaded without charge? As Lessig stated, “This will require changes in the law, at least in the interim. These changes should be designed to balance the protection of the law against the strong public interest that innovation continue.

Here is an interesting link regarding the RiAA.

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/569952/riaa-sues-napster-piracy.jhtml