COPYRIGHT for dummies… the basics.
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Copyright is a serious issue in relation to the internet, and seems to be becoming more and more complex, as technology evolves. ‘Intellectual property is a natural field for economic analysis of law, and copyright is an important form of intellectual property.’ (Landes & Poser 1989, pg. 326)
If I were to re-write a paragraph, word for word, from the novel ‘To Kill a Mocking bird’, by Harper Lee, without referencing the quote or acknowledging that it is the words of Lee, this scenario would be completely illegal. The same applies to the internet. If I were to take a licensed YouTube clip and re-post it under my name, regardless of how amuture the clip may be, this is an illegal action.
However, if I were to download a recipe for strawberry muffins from the internet, and re-create the recipe, this is completely legal.
So, what is the difference?
The term ‘re-write’, and ‘re-post’, used in my example’s above, are completely different, in this case, to the term ‘re-create’. If we are re-creating something, the re-creation will be different to its original. However, if we simply ‘re-post’ something, the original text or image remains the same. Therefore, it’s copyright.
‘While the cost of creating a work subject to copyright protection – for example, a book, movie, song, ballet, lithograph, map, business directory, or computer software program –is often high, the cost of reproducing the work, whether by the creator or to whom he has made it available, is often low.’ (Landes & Poser 1989) Furthermore, once copies are available to others, additional copies become even cheaper to reproduce. This is a key driving incentive behind the action of copyright.
Copyright is complex, but ultimately necessary. Without copyright, no one could own the right to their own original ideas.
References:
Landes, W & Poser, R 1989, An Economic Analysis of Copyright Law, Vol. 18 no. 2, viewed 23 September, via JSTOR database, http://www.warsystems.hu/wp-content/uploads_bodo/An%20Economic%20Analysis%20of%20Copyright%20Law.pdf
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