As the internet is developing at a very quick pace, there are some issues which are occurring on a very regular basis, with many of these being negative. One of the major issues is Copyright. It is very easy to bypass copyright laws, as there are many ways to copy peoples work, or download material without being caught by anyone. The internet makes this very easy to do so, because it is very easy to set yourself as anonymous, so illegal acts can take place with little worry, if any! Breach of copyright laws includes downloading music, films or other media files without paying for them or having permission to do so. Other copyright which occurs through the internet is plagiarism, which is taking someone else’s work and putting it across as your own; without referencing it. All these acts are illegal to do, and could have serious consequences…you just have to get caught doing it (which is pretty easy to get away with!)
To try and understand copyright a little better, we produced a presentation about a certain area of copyright. There were three topics to do; which were
1. In defence of copyright – the publishers position
2. Copyright and Participatory culture
3. Solutions?
The first group’s topic was about why copyright is important and why is it necessary. They also discussed what problems the internet causes for publishers, and what breach of copyrights there were. Their presentation gave the rest of the group a more in depth understanding about copyright and how important it is to have copyright laws, but also how easy it is to get away with it.
The second groups presentation expanded on the copyright laws, and explained what problems copyright create for participatory culture. It also went on to argue and explain changes in the laws due to the problems that keep on occurring.
The group I was in discussed the solutions of copyright. This was interesting to do, because it allowed us to get an insight into how to stop the problem, and showed us that they are trying to stop people from breaking the law and breaching copyright laws. We looked into what solutions they have come up with and how successful these solutions have been.
A good and clever solution of Peer-to-Peer networks is using decoy files, which do not have the full or actual file in which they believe they are downloading/transferring. The full presentation can be found below, which has all the solutions to copyright on.
Even though there are many solutions in place now, I do not think that it is going to rule out copyright, or even come close to doing so. The internet in advancing at a much quicker pace than the solutions are coming into effect, meaning there is always going to be another way to get around the laws and solutions put in place for copyright.
Even though looking at the solution was good and enabled us to see what is in place to try and stop people at the moment, it also allowed us to know how to get around the copyright laws too, as we now know how to avoid some of the solutions put into place!
Langford, D., (2000) Internet Ethics Basingstoke: Macmillan Press Ltd.
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