What are pirates? As you can see from the picture above, pirates are actually thieves who commit their robberies at the sea, sometimes on the shore. Well, how is this relevant to the topic I'm going to talk about in this entry? Imagine...how will you feel if someone robbed your valuables be it in the sea or on the shore? That's exactly how content creators will feel if you conveniently 'rob' their hard work and take credit for it. This act violates the law of copyrights. Though many had been sued or charged for this violation, the act of copyrighting still continue even to this day despite the re-enforcement of laws.
So...what exactly is copyright? According to Wikipedia, Copyright is a set of exclusive rights regulating the use of a particular expression of an idea or information. At its most general, it is literally "th
e right to copy" an original creation. The symbol for copyright is ©, and in some jurisdictions may alternatively be written as either (c) or (C) (Wikipedia, 2007). It is important to enforce this law because it will balance the interest of authors and the public (Why copyright?, 2005). For each case of copyright infringement, the fine could go up to as high as $30,000. If the person is aware of the infringement and still went about to do it, the fine could go up to $150,000 for each act of infringement (Copyright Questions, 2005).
The copyright law was established for the benefits of the content creators and the public. With the existance of this law, not only do the content creators benefit financially, it is also a motivation for them to create better work (Why copyright?, 2005). Besides that, it is also for the benefit of the public. If the authors' works are not exclusive and that anyone could excess to it and make it their own, these authors would lose their motivation to produce good work. These are the reasons why the fines increase every year for violating the copyright laws. Many original creators such as authors, musicians and so on suffered a great loss because of all these online pirates.
You can see the act of piracy and violation of copyrights being performed on the internet everyday. For example...file sharing. File sharing is the practice of making files available for other users to download over the Internet and smaller networks. Usually file sharing follows the peer-to-peer (P2P) model, where the files are stored on and served by personal computers of the users (Wikipedia, 2007). There are a few music downloading programs that modeled after this system. A few years ago, one of the more popular peer-to-peer file sharing application is the mIRC. There were numerous channels in IRC which practice file-sharing. It was easy to use and downloading of mp3 files were fast. However, all these channels were soon banned due to the violation of copyrights in the music industry. Another well-known music application is Kazza. Kazaa is commonly used to exchange MP3 music files over the Internet, however it can also be used to exchange other files types such as videos, applications, and documents. Throughout the past few years, Kazaa's developing company was the target of many copyright-related lawsuits (Wikipedia, 2007). The music industry was quick to blame file-sharing is the root of their declined sales. They complained and started to sue those file-sharing individuals. The congress is considering a number of measures designed to counter the perceived threat of file-sharing (File Sharing, June 2005). However, the public did not seem to be threatened by the fines. File sharing continued and increased as the years go by.
There are other file-sharing applications such as Sharezza, Baidu and Limwire which still exist now. Today LimeWire i
s the more user-friendly and popular file-sharing application amongst most people. It is a free software and it allows you to search for multiple files at the same time, available in several different languages, and is most famous for its ease-of-use and cross-platform compatibility (LimeWire, 2005). The copyright information in the official website stated that Limewire is a legal software but it is illegal for users to share copyrighted files without permission. Despite the re-enforcement of this rule before downloading the software, many people continue to share copyrighted files in this software. Singapore had already fined a few offenders who had been massively downloading and sharing files even though they were aware of it being an illegal act.
Not only are musicians and authors affected by the act of piracy, bloggers like us are could be affected too! As quoted from one of our famous Singapore bloggers, Xia Xue: Xia Xue
"I had to come out with the prices, the strategies, the methods, all by myself, and people are simply lifting them off me now, because I have proven to make things work. That's ok, shit happens. What I'm not ok with is when bloggers do not follow a code of ethics" (Xia Xue, 2007)
You can express your unhappiness, you can file a lawsuit, but you can't change what the public wants. This is a serious problem. Now, we ask ourselves, what can we do to stop the acts of piracy? There are a number of music websites like AllofMp3 which required users to pay a certain amount of money before downloading any songs. The users were charged accordingly to how many songs and what categories of songs they downloaded. These websites discourage the public to download music for free and also serve as a bonus to the music industry. In Singapore, once you are caught violating the acts of piracy in music downloads, you'd be either fined or sentenced to jail for a few years. The Singapore media always publishes such news so the public will be more aware and it also serves as a warning sign never to download music off the net as its hard work of some people.
Sometimes, there should be an understanding between content creators and the public. There were cases where people who were unaware that they were copyrighting. The Internet has been characterized as the largest threat to copyright since its inception. It is awash in informa
tion, a lot of it with varying degrees of copyright protection. Copyrighted works on the Net include new s stories, software, novels, screenplays, graphics, pictures, Usenet messages and even email. In fact, the frightening reality is that almost everything on the Net is protected by copyright law. That can pose problems for the hapless surfer (The Copyright and Internet, 1996). Even though there is no clear legal consensus to what internet users can copy, they should learn to ask for permission from the original creators before linking or using information from other websites to create their own. The copyright owners always have the exclusive rights to decide whether if another person could reproduce their work or distribute their copies. We should NEVER assume that a copyright owner has given up any of these rights.
The final solution lies in our education and end product. First of all, we must educate our public on copyright and intellectual properties. Such education should start from young. It allows kids to be creative and proud of their own work. Not only that, it also helps them develop the mentality that they should not copy others' work and claim it as their own. They will be brought up being aware of the seriousness of copyrights and piracy. In this way, the kids will tend to create more than they take when they grow up.
Creators could also learn to be more open minded in sharing ideas so new ideas will come. They must also make sure their contents are good enough to gain respect from public. Once the public recognise the content, they will rather get the original ones. To conclude, once people have the skills and creativity to go ahead, they won't bother to take someone's work.
REFERENCESCopyright. (2007, January 31). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 09:26, February 1, 2007, from
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Copyright&oldid=104668499Ovalle, C. (2005). In Why Copyright, An Introduction to Copyright. Retrieved 04:30, February 1, 2007, from
http://sentra.ischool.utexas.edu/~i312co/2.phpOvalle, C. (2005). In Copyright Questions, An Introduction to Copyright. Retrieved 04:50, February 1, 2007, from
http://sentra.ischool.utexas.edu/~i312co/4.phpOvalle, C. (2005). In Why Copyright, An Introduction to Copyright. Retrieved 04:30, February 1, 2007, from
http://sentra.ischool.utexas.edu/~i312co/2.phpFile sharing. (2007, February 1). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 07:15, February 2, 2007, from
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File_sharing&oldid=104947616Kazaa. (2007, January 29). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 09:25, February 1, 2007, from
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kazaa&oldid=103970488Oberholzer-Gee, F. (June 2005). In The Effects of File Sharing on Record Sales. Retrieved 05.20, February 1, 2007 from
http://www.unc.edu/~cigar/papers/FileSharing_June2005_final.pdfLimeWire. (2005). In LimeWire, The Official Site For The Fastest File Sharing Program. Retrieved 03.18, February 1, 2007, from
http://www.limewire.com/english/content/features.shtmlCheng, W. (January 24, 2007). In Xiaxue.blogspot.com-Everybody's reading it. Retrieved 02.30, February 2, 2007 from
http://www.xiaxue.blogspot.comMontecino, V. (1996). In Copyright and the Internet. Retrieved on 05.30, February 1, 2007, from
http://mason.gmu.edu/~montecin/copyright-internet.htm
What are pirates? As you can see from the picture above, pirates are actually thieves who commit their robberies at the sea, sometimes on the shore. Well, how is this relevant to the topic I'm going to talk about in this entry? Imagine...how will you feel if someone robbed your valuables be it in the sea or on the shore? That's exactly how content creators will feel if you conveniently 'rob' their hard work and take credit for it. This act violates the law of copyrights. Though many had been sued or charged for this violation, the act of copyrighting still continue even to this day despite the re-enforcement of laws.
e right to copy" an original creation. The symbol for copyright is ©, and in some jurisdictions may alternatively be written as either (c) or (C) (Wikipedia, 2007). It is important to enforce this law because it will balance the interest of authors and the public (Why copyright?, 2005). For each case of copyright infringement, the fine could go up to as high as $30,000. If the person is aware of the infringement and still went about to do it, the fine could go up to $150,000 for each act of infringement (Copyright Questions, 2005).
s the more user-friendly and popular file-sharing application amongst most people. It is a free software and it allows you to search for multiple files at the same time, available in several different languages, and is most famous for its ease-of-use and cross-platform compatibility (LimeWire, 2005). The copyright information in the official website stated that Limewire is a legal software but it is illegal for users to share copyrighted files without permission. Despite the re-enforcement of this rule before downloading the software, many people continue to share copyrighted files in this software. Singapore had already fined a few offenders who had been massively downloading and sharing files even though they were aware of it being an illegal act.
tion, a lot of it with varying degrees of copyright protection. Copyrighted works on the Net include new s stories, software, novels, screenplays, graphics, pictures, Usenet messages and even email. In fact, the frightening reality is that almost everything on the Net is protected by copyright law. That can pose problems for the hapless surfer (The Copyright and Internet, 1996). Even though there is no clear legal consensus to what internet users can copy, they should learn to ask for permission from the original creators before linking or using information from other websites to create their own. The copyright owners always have the exclusive rights to decide whether if another person could reproduce their work or distribute their copies. We should NEVER assume that a copyright owner has given up any of these rights.
The final solution lies in our education and end product. First of all, we must educate our public on copyright and intellectual properties. Such education should start from young. It allows kids to be creative and proud of their own work. Not only that, it also helps them develop the mentality that they should not copy others' work and claim it as their own. They will be brought up being aware of the seriousness of copyrights and piracy. In this way, the kids will tend to create more than they take when they grow up.