Week 8 - Response to Content

Why doesn't strict copyright make sense for some things?

We live in a society where sharing is part of our culture. We create products for the purpose to share and distribute among ourselves, like the fact that a film is being produced so that it can be shared and watched by others. (U.S Copyright Office, 2008). There are some restrictions to the sharing, as music, videoes, images and programs are all generally copyrighted. Copyright restrictions are designed to protect the intelectual property of an individual or a company. This is so that other people can't claim the work as their own, or make money out of it (U.S Copyright Office, 2008). Although, some people argue that the rules of copyright are too strict. John Oswald stated that "If creativity is a field, copyright is the fence" (Detritus, 2010). This is supported by two reasons, firstly, those against the strickt copyright rules claim that the laws havn't cought up with the technology, and secondly, for certain companies, there are economic factors that make it profitable to leave the copyright rules as they are today (Detritus, 2010).

The biggest argument to loosen the copyright rules is that the users should have the freedom of expression, meaning that we should be able to share copies of the intelectual property as long as it's not for comercial use (Creative Commons, 2011). This will encourage creativity making users able to re-use, remix and recycle the material (Creative Commons, 2011). Creative Commons is an innovative platform that is designed to do just that. It is a site where creators and users can share and download all the material that is available, as long as they give credit to the creator. 

As Creative Commons explains it on Twitter;

Picture reference: Twitter, Creative Commons, 2011. Located at http://twitter.com/#!/creativecommons.

Reference list:
Detritus, 2010, "The Viral Communications Anti-Copyright Policy". 22 Sept 2011, located at

http://detritus.net/vircomm/projects/anticopy/.

U.S Copyright Office, 2008, "Copyright Basics". 22 Sept 2011, lovated at http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.pdf.



Creative Commons, 2011, "License Versions". 22 Sept 2011 Located at: http://wiki.creativecommons.org/License_Versions