I was watching G4 one afternoon when the ding-a-ling hot babe of the month, you know, the tech queen of the week goddess whom all the little geek boys drool over as she reads the teleprompter was prattling on about E3 or vidgaming and suddenly she kept repeating the word ‘copyright” over and over as if she knew what it was. But the way she was using it amply demonstrated that she had no FRAKKING idea what it meant. . .Nothing chaps my downy-soft buptkis more than misuse of language so it really convulsed the air in my sphygomanometer to say the least. But then I noticed that there were no raucous cat-calls of mockery and sarcasm tripping off the lips of the usually astute boy commentator neither were there screams of laughter from off-stage, and I understood, they THOUGHT SHE WAS USING IT CORRECTLY! The dweebs! Those knuckleheads didn’t know what a copyright was either. . .Do you? What are they, what is their history, and why are they used. Two hundred words please and ask the tough question: Are they to protect rights or to protect secrets and to restrict knowledge? c
06/28/2010
12 Comments »
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI
A copyright is a set of exclusive rights for the creator of an original work. These rights include the right to publish, distribute, copy, and adapt the work. Copyrights can be licensed, transferred, or assigned and they apply to a variety of topics, ranging from arts to science. Copyrights last for a certain amount of year, usually 50-100 years after the authors death, and then the work enters the public domain where it can be accessed freely by anyone.
Originally, copyrights were created in the 15th and 16th centuries by the church and government to control the output of printers. However, as time went on, the British passed a law in 1710 that guaranteed legal protection for authors and inventors. This law as passed because the government felt that authors and inventors didn’t have incentive to create anything if they were not guaranteed to get paid for it. This British law paved the way for the modern internationally standardized copyright law that guarantees money to the owner of the copyright, and also exclusive rights towards any printing, copying, or dissemination of their information.
Although originally copyrights were used to prevent information from being accessed to the public, the modern copyright law is intent on protecting the interest of the creator or owner of the copyright. The law is focused on giving the creator exclusive rights regarding what they wish to do with their work. If they want people to know about it, they can choose to do so. Similarly, the opposite is true. In addition, the author is guaranteed royalties if they do grant permission to someone who wants to copy/ use their work. Therefore, it is not the law that restricts the information, it is rather the author of the work. The law just makes it possible for an author to restrict their work from the public. Sure the law can aid in the restriction of knowledge, but it doesn’t explicitly demand it. Therefore, it is the unbiased nature of the law that leads me to believe that the law functions to protect the rights of the creator. It only makes sense that a creator of something should choose whether or not they want to reveal their work and to whom they want handling it so as their work doesn’t change or become skewed. In addition, the work will eventually become public domain, so its not like the work is lost forever if the author wants it to be hidden.
Comment by Sami Kaldawi — 06/28/2010 @ 2:06 pm
That’s a good point–though a copyright may at first restrict knowledge, it is for the sake of protection, and once the creator dies and there is no one left to protect, it becomes public domain.
Comment by David Choi — 06/28/2010 @ 3:27 pm
Alec Mazzotti
ENG 102
6/28/10
Simmons
Copyright is protecting a piece of work from being accredited by someone else. Only the author or those deriving their rights through the author can rightfully claim copyright. It is also a set of exclusive rights granted to the author of their original work. These rights are the right to copy, distribute, and edit the work. The rights can be licensed, transferred, and or assigned. The copyright only lasts for a certain amount of time after it enters the public.
When someone makes a symbol, like “Nike” they want that symbol to only be used for their company. If someone used their symbol when “Nike” was a small company, that company would get all the credit because they have more money to advertise it. Copyright protects the creators design (in this case) and only allows the original creator to distribute rights as far as to other companies’ usage. Copyright law cases have been heavily fought due to the fact that there were many loopholes in the doctrine for copyright rights. Many court cases have been won, which have changed copyright to be “monopoly free”. I honestly think that copyright can protect secrets and restrict knowledge. It depends on how the knowledge is dispersed and or displayed.
Comment by Alec — 06/28/2010 @ 2:33 pm
they can restrict knowledge, but only if the creator of the work restricts it. Thus, copyright laws operate for the creator and protect his rights.
Comment by Sami Kaldawi — 06/28/2010 @ 4:24 pm
According to the United States Copyright Office, in 1787 it was James Madison who introduced the idea, “to secure to literary authors their copyrights for a limited time.” The first copyright law was enacted in 1790 and covered such works as books, maps, and charts. The original term limit given was 14 years and the copyright may be renewed at the end of the first term, for another term of 14 years. The Philadelphia Spelling Book by John Barry, registered in the U.S. District Court of Pennsylvania, was the first copyright entry.
Today the law has been expanded to cover much more than books, maps, and charts. The law now offers protection for original works of authorship that includes: literary, dramatic, musical, architectural, cartographic, choreographic, pantomimic, pictorial, graphic, sculptural, and audiovisual creations. This “right to copy” gives the owner of the property the rights to reproduce, perform, distribute, and to allow others to use the property via a license. This protection allows the original creator of the property to profit and control how their property is being used.
Copyright law extends a tremendous benefit to the creators of the property by having control over the property. This protects the original intent and spirit of the property.
Comment by Eric Storey — 06/28/2010 @ 2:56 pm
Copyright is line of security for the author/creator of his/her original work. It gives the right to copy, distribute, and publish. A copyright can be obtained by having an original idea that is put to use. The idea itself is not a copyright, but the physical use of it such as an illustration or written novel is protected under the copyright law. The public cannot access the information under a copyright without consent of the author, unless the death of the author is around a certain amount of years. Copyright law covers multimedia work to literature. In the United States the Copyright Act was put into effect on January 1, 1978. The first copyright law was passed in April 10, 1710 by the English Parliament. The use of a copyright remains the same as it protects the authors work, guaranteeing their work being protected by the law. Take Sparky the ASU mascot, a school used the icon and altered the colors making it different. ASU sued the school for using their mascot image without consent. Altering a piece does not make it original. There are rules and regulations to be considered when dealing with a copyright. Although it’s a law people still do it as piracy is becoming the leading affiance in America.
Comment by Raymond Paul — 06/28/2010 @ 3:00 pm
A copyright is a form of protection of an “original work of authorship,” which includes musical, literary, and artistic works. Copyright laws generally reserve the right to reproduce, distribute, and display the work, among others, to the creator. Like patents and trademarks, copyright is used to protect “intellectual property,” or “creations of the mind.” Depending on the country the work was created in, the copyrights of a specific work expire a set number of years after the creator dies (70 years in U.S. law).
Modern copyright law, as Sami mentioned, originated in the late 15th century with the advent of the printing press. English government sought to censor the material being published in books and granted the Stationers’ Company, a group they could control, with the power to require all books to be registered with them. Nothing could be printed without their permission. In 1710, this changed with the Statue of Anne, which introduced legal protection of published books to the publishers themselves for 14 years, renewable if the author was still alive. This concept did not initially concern the American colonies as they mostly farmed, but eventually it is seen in Article 1, Section 8, Clause 8 of the U.S. Constitution, which grants Congress the power “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.” Today, copyright law has developed to what we know it as today and is seen all over the world.
Copyrights protect rights by ensuring the creator of an idea has control over who profits from his or her creation. This does not, however, necessarily restrict knowledge; on the contrary, it encourages self-thought. Copyrights protect expression but do not encompass an entire subject matter. Thus, rather than being able to copy someone else’s idea, a rival is able to come about his or her own product to compete in the same market.
Comment by David Choi — 06/28/2010 @ 3:26 pm
The idea of a copyright, protects a persons original idea once written or transcribed in some way, from unauthorized copies or methods of use. In the United States a copyright is automatically given to the original author. For instance, if I pull out my guitar and write a song, once it is written on paper or recorded as music, I own that song. I can choose to give it away free, or sell it. The copyright protects my choice. If I decided to sell my song, and someone steals it, records it and makes a million dollars, since I was the original author, I can sue and if able to prove I was the original author, I can get all their money.
Now is the copyright protecting my rights, or protecting my secrecy? Is it hiding some knowledge? A copyright quite simply protects my rights to use my ideas as I see fit. In my example of my song the copyright isn’t protecting my secret of the notes and chords I use. Anyone with a musical ear can listen to my song and know what I used. People can buy my CD, or listen to it on the radio and know what my song sounds like. The only thing it does is allows me to put restrictions on its use.
Another example of this would be citing sources in an English 102 class. When a person writes a book, they automatically gain a copyright on that book, it belongs to them and only them. By publishing it, either for free or for a cost, they are distributing it for other people to read and gain knowledge from the original author. We can use that knowledge in writing a paper for a college class, as long as we correctly document that it is not “our” idea, but the author of the book we read. Clearly, there is no effort to hide what the original author wrote, or to keep it a secret. We just need to make sure we are not claiming the authors idea as our own, or treating it as our own.
Comment by ceilan mcdonald — 06/28/2010 @ 4:16 pm
I agree. copyright laws are necessary so that the original creator gets credit. Its all out of fairness.
Comment by Sami Kaldawi — 06/28/2010 @ 4:21 pm
It is not always about credit. Who knows the name of the artist who sang the Geico comercial song, “I always feel like sombody’s watching me?” The comercial doesnt say, but I bet Geico had to pay them for the use of it. In the examples I used before credit was part of it, but that is not always the case. Money can be a big factor.
Comment by ceilan mcdonald — 06/28/2010 @ 4:45 pm
James Madison established copyrights in 1787 and the first law was enacted in 1790. The first book that was copyrighted was The Philadelphia Spelling Book by John Barry, which happened to be registered in the U.S. District Court of Pennsylvania.
Copyrights are a form of security. It protects the “original works of authorship”. A copyright can cover published and unpublished work. Copyrights can be used for many different types of original works. Copyrights aren’t just limited to literature of all kinds but also music, movies, computer software and architecture. If any of the work that is copyrighted happens to be stolen, the original author/creator can sue the person that stole their work and can receive the money that they deserve for their work.
Copyrights are to protect rights. It ensures the creator that if their work is stolen they have the right to sue. Copyrights make it known that we cannot declare authors ideas as our own without being punished for it. Copyrights are there so the creators can always receive credit for their works. For example if I write a script for a movie and do not have copyrights, there’s a big chance that some can steal my script and I couldn’t sue them or anything because I don’t copyrights. Having copyrights protects the creators’ work and guarantees the creator to always receive credit.
Comment by Imari Murray — 06/28/2010 @ 4:42 pm
Acctually if you write the script first you automatically have the copyright. You will just have to prove you were the first person to write it. The purpose of registering your copyrights is that now there is a legal proof you were the first.
Comment by ceilan mcdonald — 06/28/2010 @ 4:47 pm