Thursday, January 26, 2012
Copyright Issues
I heard about the hullabaloo related to the Megaupload raid, and so I read this article to see what all the hype was about. Honestly, I don't know yet what to think. When it comes to copyright laws, I think there has to be a balance. I feel that piracy is a legitimate concern, and copyright holders for music, movies, etc., have a right to pursue adequate protection of their content. At the same time, however, expecting site owners to be responsible for everything users post on their site can be ridiculous if taken to the extreme. With debates about SOPA and PIPA fresh in the air, I think we all have adequate fodder for deep thought related to these issues. In my opinion, there has to be a solution that marries the idea of giving credit to the original authors or producers while still allowing legitimate use of technology. One of the underlying issues that has to be faced is the personal integrity of individuals in our society. Regardless of the outcome in the specific case of Megaupload, it will be interesting to see how all of these copyright issues blow over.
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Hi Wayne!! ^_^
ReplyDeleteGood objective post. You ought to read a comment that I made on Facebook just this evening as to a potential solution for copyright issues. Would something like this be a good alternative solution as far as you see it? Just curious...
Facebook post (sorry it's long):
I just thought up the best possible solution for the media piracy issue: Pass a law that grants any media producer a percentage of profits gained from the ADVERTISING profits of websites that host their content. The percentage would be based on the number of viewers/download traffic that their content receives. If the website wants their money back, they can pass the charge over to the user that uploaded the content.
(e.g. Website "Z" hosts "The Dark Knight" on their site. The copyright holders get a % of "Z's" advertising space profits (you know, all the little ads on the side of your screen?) based on how much traffic the video has received. They have ___ days to comply or the CONTENT (not the whole website) is blocked automatically. If "Z" wants its money back (because "Z" didn't actually do anything wrong) they can charge their user's account that uploaded the content.)
What's your opinion? Good idea, bad idea? And trust me, it's just an idea. And it's not SOPA. Not even close. I'd like to hear your opinions.
You're right. Technology doesn't obviate the need for personal integrity. Can we use technology to promote integrity, as legislation would try to do, or must integrity come from some other source?
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