QotW3: Copyright & Our Digitalized Era

Introduction

With the advent of the personal computer and the subsequent introduction of the internet to the public, the sharing of information has never been easier. Though the internet has enabled frictionless access to unlimited resources and intelligence, this networked digital environment of ours has brought forth much controversy concerning copyright laws and infringement (Litman, 2003).

Items of expression, ranging from musical works, videos, pictures, to articles and academic journals, are simply a “click” away. A whole world of duplication and distribution of such items has been made possible, even without the consent of the creators. This is where we deal with the copyright issue.

Content Creators

Copyright basically gives content creators exclusive rights to their creations. These creators benefit financially from their works, which is in turn meant to motivate them to continue creating (Ovalle, 2005). Copyright holders are free to exercise the attendant rights of their creations, whilst others are prohibited from using them without the permission of these copyright holders (Obtaining and enforcing, 2007).

Ever since the internet took flight, content creators have found a new medium to express their ideas, and to “create”. The growing popularity of the web gives a whole new market for the creators to showcase their work. As such, their copyright work is now more accessible.

Public

On the other hand, the public enjoys the technology that is at hand on the World Wide Web. Whether video conferencing, web surfing, electronic mailing or online shopping, the internet is a vast “playground” for people to explore. Most of all, I believe the clincher for the success of the internet is its free usage of ‘give and take’. Information of all sorts can be published, copied or downloaded at ease.

Peer-to-Peer File Sharing

With the emergence of peer-to-peer file sharing software, there arose the problem of copyright infringement due to unauthorized trading of music and video files. (Litman, 2003) The low cost involved in sharing and the significant network externalities are key reasons for the dramatic growth in the size of file sharing communities (Oberholzer-Gee et al., 2005).

Napster, originally a file sharing service, was the first widely used peer-to-peer music sharing service. Its technology allowed the public to easily share MP3 format song files with each other, thus leading to the music industry's accusations of massive copyright violations. Since Napster, many such peer-to-peer networks have surfaced, and downloading music, pictures and even movies have been a breeze (Napster, 2007).

Piracy

With the proliferation of high speed Internet connections, relatively small file size and high-quality MP3 audio format, file sharing has grown in popularity (File Sharing, 2007). Although file sharing is a legal technology with legal uses, many users use it to download copyrighted materials without explicit permission (File Sharing, 2007); thus, the issue of copyright infringement or "piracy". This has led to attacks against file sharing in general from copyright owners.

Accommodating Interests

Content creators want their due credits for their works, and are unhappy with piracy that has

arisen through peer-to-peer file sharing services. On

the other hand, with such services available online, the public benefits from being able to download material for free.

So what can we do to accommodate the interests of the content creators and the public?

Technical Structures

Although legislatives have been working on cutting down on piracy through the suing of users who commit copyright infringement, there are other ways that can improve the situation and accommodate both creators and public interests.

Previewing

Many creators have resorted to giving free music sampling on their web sites. Similarly, the full material would be advertised for purchase on the website as well (Quintane, 2004). The free sampling encourages users to decide for themselves if they want to purchase the goods which would be of a more premium quality than the sampling. In such a case, the public benefits because they are able to judge if the material is worth their money before making a purchase. On the other hand, the content creators cut losses through such sales, in comparison to the growing peer-to-peer file sharing technologies.

Audible Magic

On the other hand, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has been promoting the new filtering technology of Audible Magic. This filtering technology claims to be able to sit inside peer-to-peer software and automatically stop swaps of copyrighted music from artists (Borland, 2004). Due to widespread trading of copyright material through the peer-to-peer services, filtering would protect creators’ works to a wider extent.

Using audio “fingerprinting” technology, Audible Magic is able to detect copyrighted music works by identifying "psycho-acoustical" properties. According to the company, the identification procedure is flexible; a song might be compressed into a lower quality recording, or have a few seconds of silence taken out at the beginning or end, or be otherwise transformed, and yet the technology will still recognize it as the same song. (Borland, 2004)

Previewing + Audible Magic

Both solutions combined, content creators are protected from unauthorized downloading of their copyrighted material. On the other hand, when these creators open channels for the public to attain sampling of music, they allow the public more freedom to attain songs and give them more leeway to decide on whether to purchase the material. With the technology available today, online piracy cannot be completely curbed. Therefore, such a compromise on both ends of the creators and the public would accommodate both interests.

Social Structures

In order for the solutions to accommodate both creators and the public, legislatives would have to enforce laws on file sharing services to put up filtering technology. This would be the first step in reducing online piracy.

Moreover, alternative routes for the public to get music should be more widely publicized. Whether or not the music is at a lower cost or free, I feel that creators should work to give the public more incentives, so that they do not find ways and means to copy music unethically.

Conclusion

I feel that the issue of copyright has to be slowly modified to work with this new digitalized era. Our internet age has provided the public with vast access to materials, and if the creators want to benefit, copyright would have to change with the times. The needs of the public have become just as important as the rights of creation. We should all work to bridge the gap as we step into an environment of vast available access to technology.

References:

Borland, J. (2004). File-swap ‘killer’ grabs attention. CNET News.

Retrieved February 3, 2007, from http://news.com.com/2100-1025-5168505.html?tag=yt

File Sharing. (2007). Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved

February 3, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_sharing

Litman, J. (2003). Sharing and Stealing. Social Science Research

Network. Retrieved February 2, 2007, from http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=472141

Napster. (2007). Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved

February 2, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napster

Oberholzer-Gee, F., & Strumpf, K. (2005). The Effect of File

Sharing on Record Sales. Retrieved February 2. 2007, from http://www.unc.edu/~cigar/papers/FileSharing_June2005_final.pdf

Obtaining and enforcing copyright. (2007). Wikipedia, the free

encyclopedia. Retrieved February 3, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright#Obtaining_and_enforcing_copyright

Ovalle, C. (2005). An Introduction to Copyright. University of

Texas at Austin. Retrieved February 1, 2007, from http://sentra.ischool.utexas.edu/~i312co/2.php

Quintane, E. (2004). An alternative solution for piracy. CNET

News. Retrieved February 3, 2007, from http://news.com.com/5208-1025_3-0.html?forumID=1&threadID=843&start=0