These words can describe how majority of us go about getting information, whether it is in hardcopy or softcopy. However in such a digitalized world that we are in now, information has become easily accessible. There are online versions of popular fiction, academic books, scientific research, statistics, television programs and music which all can be purchased or viewed to over the internet. Not only this but with its ease in accessibility, brings also ease of duplication and worse still even greater ease of information sharing over the internet. With so many things now turning digital, easily accessible, and open to most of the public; how can content creators ensure that their creations are protected from duplication and theft?
Content creators have been given exclusive rights to their creations with the help of the Copyright law. The Copyright law is not only set up to benefit mainly the creators but also the public. Personally, I felt that Copyright forms a vicious cycle between the two groups. It gives content creators the ability to protect their work and exclusive rights to is given even if it was for a limited period of time. Given this benefit, creators will have that level of reassurance that their work is protected from theft or duplication. The public also stand to benefit from this law as they are allowed to view these works and even use them for their personal benefit. For many creators, their works are their source of income. With demand and purchases made for their work, this monetary gain would give creators the motivation to continue on with their work. With the demand for more information from the public to the creators, creators would continue to publish more work and this would in turn continue to benefit the public as well. The copyright law is created with the intention to provide balance between the interests of the creators and the public.
However, in recent years, the public have been abusing this benefit that they have been given from such easily accessible information. People have begun duplicating others works and distributing them to others for their own benefit or for the benefit of others while breaking the Copyright rule. They have begun “copy, and pasting” works of others, distributing them illegally and even passing them off as works of their own. Plagiarism is prevalent in schools, and students are often reminded of the severity of such actions. People illegally download music via downloading programs such as Napster and Torrent (Wikipedia, 2007). The most popular form of sharing would be Peer-to-Peer (P2P) activities where file sharing freely occurs (Wikipedia, 2007). More than 60 million Americans participate in this activity of file sharing (Karagiannis et al., 2004). It is because of such activities that content creators have begun blaming such activities for the drop in sales and profit. The music industry has been affected the most by online activities such as these and until today, is still an issue in many countries.
I sincerely believe that these activities are not to be fully blamed for the drop in sales, and that there is a possibility that there are other undiscovered factors that could be negatively affecting sales. Taking music for example, I believe that file sharing can most often than not, help boost sales figures.
This diagram which has been extracted from a study done by Felix Oberholzer-Gee from Harvard Business School on The Effect of File Sharing on Record Sales in June 2005, demonstrates how downloads can be seen as means to boost sales. Such exposure can have positive outcomes. For example, people who have not heard of certain artist and are suddenly introduced to them might become potential fans and begin purchasing merchandise related to that particular artist.
Both interests can be accommodated with various ideas. Content Creators can look to other means of profit creation by holding concerts. Educating the public can be further enhanced by teaching them that there are other means to getting their music. Take iTunes for example. iTunes provide music listeners with the opportunity to get the desired song they would like legally and at a minimal cost of less than a dollar. This allows the public to get the son they desire without having to purchase the CD for just one or two songs. With this, the amount of money that would normally be spent on buying a whole CD can now allow the public to purchase a single song from different artist for ones own use. This way, both the interests of content creators and public good can be satisfied.
In conclusion, I believe that to further ensure that these interests are maintained; companies can come up with new ways to embed software to stop people from copying and sharing files too much, allowing there to be a block when the limit has been exceeded. Other alternative ways to gain monetary value could be sought. For example, musical artist could hold concerts and writers could hold writing classes and seminars. Further more, harsher penalties could be imposed on offenders. A justifiable spokesperson could be appointed to discourage piracy. Content creators can work to establishing bonds with companies who produce mp3s.
References
Ovalle, C. (2005). An Introduction to Copyright. Information in Cyberspace, 2. Retrieved January 31, 2007, from http://sentra.ischool.utexas.edu/~i312co/1.php
Oberholzer-Gee, F., & Strumpf, K. (2005). The Effect of File Sharing on Record Sales. Retrieved January 29, 2007, from http://www.unc.edu/~cigar/papers/FileSharing_June2005_final.pdf
Wikipedia ( January, 2007). “Downloading” Retrieved January 30, 2007 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downloading
Wikipedia (29 January, 2007). “Peer-to-Peer” Retrieved January 30, 2007 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peer-to-peer
1 comment:
The last idea you had... it can get interesting. Essentially to charge less for content but earn more from the less "duplicable" things such as concerts and writing lessons. Good thoughts = Full grades. Congrats! :)
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