Copyright Infringement Research Paper
Copyright Infringement Research Paper
We are well into the year of 2011 and technology is continuing to advance and a faster and faster rate. As technology advances there continues to be more of an opportunity for things to go wrong. The ability of our society to obtain information has been becoming as easy as it has ever been. I simple line into the google search bar and you are looking at millions upon millions of lings and opportunities to attain information. With this source and hundreds or even thousands of these resources just like it, piracy and copyright issues have never been more of a problem. And a very serious problem at that. Copyright is defined as a set of exclusive rights granted to the author or creator of an original work, including the right to copy, distribute and adapt the work. The exclusive rights are however balanced for public interest purposes with limitations and exceptions to the exclusive right - such as fair dealing and fair use. Copyright does not protect ideas, only their expression. In most jurisdictions copyright arises upon fixation and does not need to be registered. Copyright owners have the exclusive statutory right to exercise control over copying and other exploitation of the works for a specific period of time, after which the work is said to enter the public domain (1). While piracy is simply defined as the unauthorized use of another's production, invention, or conception especially in infringement of a copyright (2). The definition of these two is strongly correlated and leaves them both dealing with the same issues that have been plaguing the creative minds of many people in recent times. Copyright and piracy issues have had a huge effect on how we are able to access information on the internet. Information is going to continue to get more difficult to attain the further into the future we get, but how will this directly effect us?
First a generalized overview over the types of copyright and piracy
We are well into the year of 2011 and technology is continuing to advance and a faster and faster rate. As technology advances there continues to be more of an opportunity for things to go wrong. The ability of our society to obtain information has been becoming as easy as it has ever been. I simple line into the google search bar and you are looking at millions upon millions of lings and opportunities to attain information. With this source and hundreds or even thousands of these resources just like it, piracy and copyright issues have never been more of a problem. And a very serious problem at that. Copyright is defined as a set of exclusive rights granted to the author or creator of an original work, including the right to copy, distribute and adapt the work. The exclusive rights are however balanced for public interest purposes with limitations and exceptions to the exclusive right - such as fair dealing and fair use. Copyright does not protect ideas, only their expression. In most jurisdictions copyright arises upon fixation and does not need to be registered. Copyright owners have the exclusive statutory right to exercise control over copying and other exploitation of the works for a specific period of time, after which the work is said to enter the public domain (1). While piracy is simply defined as the unauthorized use of another's production, invention, or conception especially in infringement of a copyright (2). The definition of these two is strongly correlated and leaves them both dealing with the same issues that have been plaguing the creative minds of many people in recent times. Copyright and piracy issues have had a huge effect on how we are able to access information on the internet. Information is going to continue to get more difficult to attain the further into the future we get, but how will this directly effect us?
First a generalized overview over the types of copyright and piracy