This week the topic is about copyrights, piracy and fair use. We read the articles “”South Park wins Lawsuit over “What what in the Butt” Parody”” and the other article called ” Yes, Copyright’s Sole Purpose is to Benefit the Public.” We also watched a documentary called Napster Documentary which was a very interesting documentary. In the video documentary, it talks about Napster and how it was for unauthorization sound recording. People stated that they cannot afford to pay 16 dollars for a CD so instead they turn to Napster. The program quickly spread like wildfire and soon everyone was using this program. People don’t view it as stealing because it is the songs they like and are interested in. The documentary stated that millions of people used this site to swap music files off of each other’s computers for free. No one anticipated that people would be willing to share their hard drive with other people..the thought of it was absurd however people were doing just that and it opened up a whole new realm.
Going over to the South Park lawsuit article, it talks about how they were sued over an episode in which the character Butters recreated an internet video sensation from the singer Samwell. Samwell had a really big hit with that song and got millions of views with it. According to the article, Viacom claimed it was a parody and fell squarely within “fair use ” exceptions to copyrights. Viacom ended up winning this lawsuit due to the fact that it was less than. minute in a 25 minute episode and made the video even more outrageous than the original so it indeed was in fair use. I just feel as though people are getting out of control with these copyrights suing.. even if you have something in the background of a video they could take down your video due to “copyrights’.. frankly it’s annoying and absurd and needs to be taken down a notch.
The second article is ” Yes, Copyrights sole purpose is to Benefit the public,” and it talks about the actual sole purpose and background behind the copyrights. It states that it is for the author first and the nation second. It also states the clause ” To promote the progress of science and useful Arts, by securing for limited times to Authors and inventors and exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.” So initially it was not for other kinds of creativity and it is supposed to benefit the public instead. With this whole article I feel as though I need to go back a few times to really understand because I never really thought much about copyrights because I don’t post videos often and things like that, however, it is a topic and issue that has gone overboard like I said before.
Below is an article that gives many examples as to who was impacted by copyrights and how and the new regulations that the supreme passed for it. You now have to get a copyright registration before suing for a copyright and it could take up to years.
SOCIAL MEDIA & SOCIETY 
copyright was created to protect people’s creation from being stolen and used without recognition and I understand it but the extreme that people go to prevent copyright is a lot and you have to be careful. From a creator’s perspective, it’s very beneficial but from a beginner, it’s extreme and is a rule that needs to be followed.
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Hello, yes you were right the article was based on a case that has been made on a video which is less than a minute. It seemed like it was against the copyright rules but the judge gave a totally unexpected decision under the “fair use” act of the Copyright policies. So, we got to know that not all of the things to be used are against the laws. There are circumstances which made the use legal for the people as explained well in the next article i.e. “Fair Use Doctrine”.
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I agree with you that copyright suing has gotten a bit out of hand but so has suing just about anyone in the U.S. for just about everything. You can’t go at least 2 different commercial breaks when watching anything on TV without seeing a commercial on if this happened to you or if you used this product you may be eligible for a huge amount of cash. I think that is just the society we live in where everyone is just looking to make a quick dollar and don’t really care what they do to make it. Like you see up and coming YouTubers and even one that have been around for a while that make videos that get sued for copyright infringement. A lot of the time its for the clothes or products they are wearing or that other people that end up being in the video are wearing. Now you see a lot of YouTubers starting their own clothes lines so they don’t have to worry about being sued and blurring out any other thing that could lead to them being sued.
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Hey, You have explained well the documentary and I agree with you that back then people fell for the free music without understanding the fact that not everyone like to share their drive and their personal data publically and it is against privacy too. I think back then the only thing that took people attention was the free music disregard of the fact that how they are getting it.
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Hey there Sydney! Great blog this week it was a great read and very interesting. I do agree with you on how these copyright rules are starting to get out of hand, I think that very rarely that the content that is being used should be taken down. People who use some of content are only promoting the artists who created it and that way will gain more fans because others start to take interest. I can understand sites like Napster back in the day because people were not aware of what technology can actually do, so it was a big shock to artists and them missing out on their money
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