"QotW3: Of Pirates and Copycats"

The issue of copyright has sparked much controversy since its birth as England's Statute of Anne in 1710, the widely regarded first copyright law. Through the centuries, instead of it having found some resolution; with the advent and boom of the digital age, problems concerning copyright seem far from de-escalating.

Today, the modern US Copyright legislation - the Copyright Act generally gives the creators of "original works of authorship," including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works the exclusive right, in addition to authorizing others, to the use of their creations (Copyright.gov, 2006). The purpose of these laws is to ultimately benefit the public by promoting "the progress of science and useful arts;" that is, learning and knowledge (Ovalle, 2005).

Thanks to these laws, creators can benefit financially from their creations, which should provide them an incentive to continue creating. The public benefits because the authors and inventors continue creating original works that these creators may not have otherwise developed, and because these creations are freely usable by the public once the limited time has passed. It is important to remember that copyright law is intended to proscribe a balance between the interests of the authors and the interests of the public (Ovalle, 2005). Nevertheless, somehow, this balance has been tipped.

Most of us internet-users might have been guilty of copyright infringement, at least once before; simply by engaging in one of the most common on-line activities - file sharing. File sharing grew in popularity with the proliferation of high speed Internet connections, relatively small file size and high-quality MP3 audio format. Although file sharing is a legal technology, many users use it to download copyrighted materials without explicit permission. (Wikipedia, 2007).

Under current law, the information in cyberspace is lawful only because much of its content - the facts, information, and ideas, is in the public domain. Which means, that to the extent that the material in this information space is in the public domain, it can be shared, used and reused. To the extent it is protected by copyright, on the other hand, permission is needed to do all of that, and in that, spells impossibility (Litman, 2003).

A crucial change, according to Litman, transformed the U.S. copyright system from one designed to ensure the enhancement of the public domain, to one designed to support the indefinite proprietary treatment of articulated thought. Divisibility of copyright allows the creator to keep control over different sorts of exploitation of his work by different entities. However, the problem with divisibility is that it potentially requires multiple licenses for any single use of a copyrighted work.

In the case of MP3.com, which specialized in making both major-label and unsigned music available in the MP3 format, it seemed 'legal' to stream copyrighted music to its subscribers, and to purchase public performance licenses to allow it to do so. Conversely, MP3.com got sued for willful infringement because it did not license the reproduction rights to those songs, which are controlled by a different entity (Litman, 2003).

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is a donor-supported group which seeks to protect and expand digital rights. Its activities include litigation, political lobbying, and public awareness campaigns. The foundation promotes the legalization of peer-to-peer sharing of copyrighted materials and alternative methods to provide compensation to copyright holders(Wikipedia, 2007).

Litman added that in order to create a viable online information and entertainment resource, a U.S. government task force concluded that the Unted States needed to offer distributors of copyrighted works a larger share of the 'copyright pie'. Only then would they invest the resources needed to develop digital content that would be sufficiently compelling to convince consumers to pay for Internet access.

Whether it's the divisibility of copyright, the EFF, or a larger piece of the copyright pie, perpetually everything is protected by copyright, and it is almost impossible to know whom to ask for permission. With the ambiguity and complexities of the albeit long-withstanding rules of copyright, we either become, or fall prey to the present-day 'pirates' and 'copycats'.

REFERENCES

Circular 1 (2006, July). Copyright Office Basics. US Government Printing Office. Retrieved on February 1, 2007, from http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.html

Litman, J (2003, November). "Sharing and Stealing". University of Michigan. Social Science Research Network. Retrieved on January 18, 2007, from http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=472141

Ovalle, C. (2005). “What is copyright?”. University of Texas at Austin, Course INF 312. Information in Cyberspace. Retrieved on January 18, 2007, from http://sentra.ischool.utexas.edu/~i312co/3.php

Wikipedia: The free encyclopedia. (2007, February 1). FL: Wikipedia Foundation, Inc. Retrieved February 2, 2007, from http://www.wikipedia.org/