QotW3- Copyright

Content creators are artists. They generate, invent and produce an object or an idea. On the other hand, public good refers to people, the masses wanting to hear or read the material generated by the content creators. The people want to hear and read without paying a premium for it whereas the content creators want to charge an amount for the work they have produced in order to maintain their interest and incentive to produce quality work. This is where copyright issues come up and create a rift between these two types of groups. The purpose of these laws is to benefit the public by promoting “the progress of science and useful arts; that is, learning and knowledge.” (An Introduction to Copyright, 2005). The means of this promotion is in the creation of laws, like copyright laws, that give the creators ‘exclusive rights’ to their creation for a limited time. This is financially beneficial for the creators, which provides motivation for these artists to continue creating original work that they might not have otherwise developed (An Introduction to Copyright, 2005). What both the parties desire is a balance. This balance must be reached between commercial interests of the artists and the social interests of the public.

"Copyright doesn't stifle creativity, it stifles your ability to use other people's work," (Remix culture: a rights nightmare, 2007). However, in today’s day and age there are certain software’s and people that use others work without proper rights thus breaching the copyright law. There are groups like the Adelphi Charter, Creative Commons, Open Source Software and Open Journal that have sprung up, looking to redress an imbalance in the system, and they emphasize on improved creativity and innovation. These groups strongly believe that it is in the public interest to make information free and they are pushing for information and material to be more accessible (Remix culture: a rights nightmare, 2007).
When Bill Gates supported the Copyright of software to protect it from being misused, it was Richard Stallman, who started the Free Software Movement and developed the concept of "Copyleft" and the GNU General Public License (GPL). What is most popular today is file sharing, peer-to-peer (P2P) and consumer-to-consumer distribution. Encouraged by ‘Creative Commons,’ an organization that in many ways applies the concept of sharing to creative works and aims to easily allow authors to license their work in a way that they choose, the people today are resorting to violating law and disrespecting the content creators (An Introduction to Copyright, 2005). Peer-to-peer, an upcoming technology is one where the creator’s aren’t getting paid for their work. Peer-to-peer file trading has so far proved to be an effective distribution mechanism for a range of music, but is unfair at compensating creators (Litman, Nov 23, 2003). Another such hazard to copyright is File sharing. This method is now one of the most common on-line activities where people not only download music but a number of other files too. File sharers use networks of computers to search for and download files from one another. The low cost of sharing and significant network externalities are key reasons for the dramatic growth in the size of the file sharing community (Litman, Nov 23, 2003). Since physical distance is largely irrelevant in file sharing, individuals from virtually every country in the world participate. There is great interest in understanding the economic effects of file sharing, in part because the music industry was quick to blame file sharing for a recent decline in sales. Between 2000 and 2003, the number of CD’s shipped in the United States fell by 20% to 750 million units (Litman, Nov 23, 2003). File sharing was seen as the main culprit for the decline in sales of records. Participants could substitute downloads for legal purchases, thus reducing sales. File sharing lowered the price of music, which drew in low-valuation individuals who would otherwise not have purchased albums (Litman, Nov 23, 2003).

The ongoing debate for years is that should those who cannot pay, be asked to pay when it is available for free? Software’s like Napster, Bit Torrents, Limewire, etc, are some software's based on P2P downloads. Even software’s like Firefox are free. They are open share and the reason for their success, apart from being free from copyright issues are, that they can be customized. Software’s like Microsoft Office or Explorer cannot be customized. Hence people have issues to pay for such software’s when free ones are readily available. Another debatable topic is the increase in new music artists removing copyright from their music or pieces of work to promote their albums. This is a blow to copyright but a publicity stunt, which has made them popular. People are not only listening and using their music, but are also getting inspired to ‘Rip’ other music to share online.

In conclusion, there is no end to laws and other technical structures like trackers, etc but one should understand that the artists are creative people trying to earn their living by producing quality goods. Thus is one violates the copyright law and promotes piracy or plagiarism; they are giving the artist no incentive to produce quality work. If artists stop getting money for their work, they will stop producing good products, leading to a lack of talent and good work. Hence, the public good and content creator’s should come to compromise, which is equally good on both, thus forming an ideal situation. Ideal situation does not mean the product should be free, however, a complete foolproof answer has not been attained yet. The content creator’s would want to maintain their commercial interests whereas, the users would want a bargain. Therefore it is a difficult debate and may take years before equilibrium can be achieved.

Reference:

Litman, J. (2003). [On-line]. Retrieved January 30, 2007 from the World Wide Web:
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=472141

Martin, R (2007). [On-line] Remix Culture: A Rights Nightmare from the World Wide Web:
http://www.abc.net.au/catapult/indepth/s1645533.htm

An Introduction to Copyright (2005). [On-Line] from World Wide Web:
http://sentra.ischool.utexas.edu/%7Ei312co/1.php