Copyright has been a hot topic in politics and media of late, particularly as to how copyright law pertains to internet publications. A primary focus in recent discussions of copyright is the plethora of postings on social media sites, Facebook, YouTube and so on.
How to regulate internet copyright usage and protect authors of internet posts in this free-flowing exchange of ideas and information can create hot discussions among all components of the internet community.
Does knowledge of the share button on a social network site imply that you are willing to share your thought or comment in an unlimited and potentially viral way? What of musicians, film producers, writers and artists?
Is your piece or your writing no longer your property if you post it, even in part, to Facebook or YouTube? Some hard-copy publishers will no longer accept an offered piece as unpublished work if it appears anywhere online.
Questions Being Asked About Internet Copyright
- If a musician posts a song on YouTube they are aware that the video has potential to be shared, but what if a music fan creates a video using a musician's song?
- Does the musician hold any hope of controlling the representations of their art that are broadcast on the internet?
- On a more personal level, what if someone posts a video of you and it becomes a viral internet hit?
- Can you hope to contain this type of thing once it is out there in cyberspace?
- Can anyone owning a website or blog, or holding a page on a larger host site, expect copyright protection?
Basic Rules of Copyright Are Not That Complicated.
If a source is quoted, the source must be cited: author, publication, date of publication.
Wikipedia states that copyright “gives the copyright holder the right to be credited for the work, to determine who may adapt the work to other forms, who may perform the work, who may financially benefit from it, and other, related rights. It is an intellectual property form (like the patent, the trademark, and the trade secret) applicable to any expressible form of an idea or information that is substantive and discrete”.
However, “most jurisdictions recognize copyright in any completed work, without formal registration. Generally, copyright is enforced as a civil matter, though some jurisdictions do apply criminal sanctions”.
Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Copyright.
Wikisource has original text related to this article: Copyright law.
The share option available on many online sites implies that the author is knowingly giving permission; many websites offer free downloads for certain items. This does not give the downloader permission to further share, only to download for their personal enjoyment.
Any action past that point becomes an infringement of the right of the author, musician, artist, producer or creator to something they would otherwise gain benefit from. Unless there is express permission to freely distribute online publications, we may not do so and, more important, free distributions must still be accompanied by the cited source.
How copyright legalities affect internet use may cause some confusion to the average internet user. I, for one, will be following the proposed legislations on this topic with a great deal of interest.
Sources: Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page, February 2, 2012.
