Copyright Controversy

I believe Copyright issues hold a proportional relationship with the advance in technology. As one increases, so does the other. In today's society technology make it too easy to copy and use copyrighted materials. It was interesting to research the beginnings of Copyright laws and learn how and why they were originally put into place. They were intended as an incentive for scientific, artistic, or other creative achievements. they allowed the author to retain the sole rights to copy or distribute that work. These laws were not intended to restrict access to there works, they were meant to influence other authors to create more works, increasing the creative effort within society. Of course these first laws were set in place a while before our current modern age. Today we have the amazing device of the Internet which I feel is a big culprit of Copyright infringement. Simply put it is too easy to obtain/copy/sell copyrighted material. I have done it personally mainly because all I have to do is boot up a program and search for any media and i will have a copy of it on my computer in about 8 seconds. I understand how the authors feel ripped off in this situation, but I have no idea how either the author or the government can defeat this Internet problem.

Copyright infringement is a big deal, especially in an art college where plagiarism is a real threat with harsh consequences. In one court case a sculptor created a piece from a postcard picture he found in an airport. He made a good deal of money off of his work. The photographer of the picture found out about this and sued for violation of copyright. This case delved into the rules of Copyright laws. The court tried to draw the line on where a piece can be considered copied or not. Basically you must change the original work in such a way that it cannot be recognized, or use the piece in a satirical or criticizing way. I think they will settle out the guidelines eventually, but as technology moves on it will become a harder problem to address.