Last Thursday we had a speaker in our computer skills class. His name was Jason Hardin and he works in the library here at Trinity. He came to teach us about copyright laws, which is what his specialty is here at Trinity. Copyright is exactly what it sounds like, a persons right to copy a work. The original creator holds the copyright, and the government is charged in the Constitution with protecting this right. I learned that copyright infringement is not the same as plagiarism, copyright is a crime, but plagiarism is a social taboo. The copyright is established when the piece of work is made, and it lasts until 70 years after the creators death. Then, the work becomes part of public domain, and anyone and everyone is free to use it as they wish. I knew that downloading music via a P2P program was illegal, but until I heard this talk I did not know just how much trouble could come of it. A Trinity student was caught illegally downloading music, and the lawsuit was settled out of court for $14,000. I think it is rather ridiculous that they can get away with taking so much money for such a small infraction, but that is just the way things work these days. Music artists make a lot of money these days, A LOT, so I do not see why the recording industry feels a need to crack down so hard on poor college students. I found the creative commons idea very interesting. I think it is a good idea for people to be willing to share their work with other people for free, generosity is hard to find these days it seems.
After hearing this talk, it made me think again about all the music I have been illegally downloading. Sure, it is a longshot that I will be caught, but is it really worth getting sued thousands of dollars? I think not. I have now resolved to quit illegally downloading music here at school and use websites like
www.youtube.com,
www.last.fm, and
www.pandora.com to listen to the music I want to listen to. It causes more of an inconvenience to me, but it is definitely a better choice then taking a risk and possibly getting sued for every bit of money I have.
Kyle's Blog by
Kyle Brightwell is licensed under a
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"Copyright is exactly what it sounds like, a persons right to copy a work."--you know, come to think of it, I don't think I've ever heard anyway simplify it to this :) Nice job.
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