Grand Theft IP

If the English language were to be privatized, all English speakers will need to pay royalty to every English word that is used in everyday conversation or any other means.  In such case, I will need to pay a fortune to be able to publish this blog in English or come up with a whole new language.  In such condition, if I were to avoid committing a copyright crime, I would have to come up with a whole new language to be able to publish this blog without going broke; however, this new language that I come up with will be a new protected IP, and therefore for anyone who wants to read this blog and reply to it using this new IP would need to pay me royalty.  As a consequence, communication would be hindered and progress would be become retarded.  Sharing knowledge among each other will either be costly and cease to exist, or continue to exist among the so-called criminals.

I support sensible copyright protection laws.  Creators and inventors who pour their sweat and tears into their works should be rewarded.   Although, I also understand the potential problem when businesses monopolize intellectual properties in ways that could inhibit progress.

Almost all materials that were published in the 20th century and after is copyrighted.  Copyright laws have gone through many revisions, and after 1989 all new works are automatically protected whether the original creators placed a copyright notice or not.  Many organizations, creators and artists put on copyright notices for safety measure and also to heighten the claim of credit.  You can see this common practice by browsing through many of the local museum websites that are recommended by professor Evans.  Although a copyright notice is not necessarily required to be protected, you will notice that almost every website you browse through has a copyright notice placed on the bottom of every page.

Copyright protection is great, but sometimes prevents consumers from truly owning something, even though they paid for it.  If you bought a device that is rendered useless after a few years because the software needed to maintain the usefulness of that device is no longer supported, you have the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 to thank for.  This act bans the tempering of software in any medium and device.  This act also prevents consumers from truly owning devices (and media) that they pay for, and once the software is no longer supported, the hardware will become crippled and unable to properly perform.  Any attempt to revitalize your investments, either through modification or hacking, is considered unlawful.  This is also something we all have to consider when starting new digital projects.  Copyright laws are great, although sometimes big businesses have the resources and the capacity to find ways to exploit loop holes of the laws for their own gain.

Comments

  1. Professor Charles EvansJune 15, 2017 at 8:47 AM

    You do not really discuss Fair Use provisions ere, and what about your look at some local museums for their copyright policies?

    ReplyDelete

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