New prompt: Piracy

In our earlier unit on copyright, many of you jumped into discussions about piracy and its relationship to copyright issues, especially in the music industry. In this unit, we focus in more specifically on piracy and music and the impact piracy may or may not have on this industry. In particular, you'll watch a movie that investigates lots of issues related to copyright and music. The movie itself was made through crowdsourcing, with footage submitted from all over the world.

It's a fun movie that I'm certain you'll enjoy - please be sure to watch it.

So, for this week's post, discuss how this unit has extended your understanding of copyright issues, and particularly if these new readings and the movie have changed your thinking at all since our earlier study of copyright. Do you see evidence of the music industry being hurt by piracy? Do you see benefits to artists as the result of piracy? Where do you stand on the RIAA's efforts to curb illegal downloading?

Since college students are often the group doing the most music downloading (as many of you noted in your earlier posts!) they are also often the most likely to be hit with lawsuits or fines, so this topic particularly affects you!

Sixth blog post: Copyright and Fair Use

The web has made posting, downloading, and remixing copyrighted content infinitely easier, which can be a great boon for critics and artists, and a painful thorn in the side of copyright owners and corporations. This week, you've read quite a number of disparate articles about how copyright law came to exist in its current form (Lessig), different takes on the value of copyright, alternatives to standard copyright licensing (Creative Commons), and legal ways to use copyrighted material (Fair Use).

This week, consider both sides of the coin: how you might feel as someone wanting to use copyrighted material in a video or other work, and as someone who owns copyrighted material that someone else wants to use in THEIR work. Where do you stand?

This is a bit of an open post week, so address points of interest that came up for you in the readings and videos, but in particular, consider whether you think law as it stands is fair. Does it go too far? Not far enough? Is the internet harming copyright owners and their livelihoods, or killing creative industries like music and movies? Is the widespread dissemination of copyrighted material online actually making our culture better? Do the benefits of remixing and reposting copyrighted material outweigh the harms?

 Be sure to consider Lessig's points about the historical goals of copyright and how those goals have changed over time.