In this week’s class, we read two articles, watched one movie, listened to one podcast, and browsed two websites. The topic was copyright, piracy, and fair use. “The most important thing about intellectual property vs. creative expression is that copyright law was created not to stifle creativity but to encourage creativity.” (Shepard Fairey) In our movie, Download: Napster Documentary, we see how college students harness the power of the internet to help people trade their favorite songs with others. We then see the music industry, not realizing the potential of the web, shut this organization down. Shawn Fanning and Sean Parker started Napster while they were still in school; this networking platform lets home music be exchanged, this online sensation took off. The Recording Industry Association of America sued for infringement, as well as some artists. Napster was scrapped because of this. We now have some music apps that are based on Napster, these include iTunes, Rhapsody, and many other music apps. In this movie, we see how the base of many popular music apps was created. 

In the article “Yes, Copyright’s Sole Purpose Is To Benefit The Public” we read, “To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.” Copyright laws are to benefit the artist and the public; by not allowing other artists to steal work and force them to tap into their own creativity. Some people do not think of copyright as something that is favorable and instead re-write things just enough to pass as not plagiarism. Copyright laws are to help artists express creativity and protect their creativity, in order to be true to yourself you must write what you believe and hold true. Copyright protects artists of all kind; from music to blog writers copyright law is to help them hold true to their work and to protect their work from others. I personally always had an idea of copyright laws but not to the extent this week’s reading taught us. In our other article, “South Park Wins Lawsuit Over “What What In The Butt” Parady”, we see Brownmark Films sue South Park for making a parody of a internet sensation from the singer Samwell. This parady was less then a minute long in the twenty-five minute long episode. South Park claimed that the use of the song was within the rights of fair usage, and this prevailed in court. The use of copyright was almost overly used in this case, as Brownmark quite literally freaked out from the fact this happened. People and companies are starting to over-use copyright laws and crack down on anyone who uses even a small part of their song/writing. I believe while copyright laws are to hepl artists that some companies take thing a bit to far, this is one of those examples. Fair use of songs and writings must be considered and taken into account while the person using these song/writings must be considerate of the artist and their work. By being respectful to artist’s work the artist will be more respectful towards you.

Have you ever plagiarized? Have you ever seen anyone copy you? Or vise-versa?

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