A young man from Boston University doctoral student was sued for downloading music from the internet and was fined $22,500 for each track x 30 tracks = $675,000.00; and this to me isn't fair to single out one person out of a generation of people his age across the entire world! If the entertainment industry wants to protect the copyrights of artists'; then they need to have legislation passed in the World Court to go after the website companies instead (of the younger generation)! The R.I.A.A or Recording Industry Association is who filed suit against this young man in 2007, and they seem to be targeting college students for suit (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/02/business/global/02iht-riedmedia.html?amp=&pageswanted+print). In 1999 the Copyright Act of 1976 was changed to make internet downloaders' that take songs or movies or any other intellectual property (especially songs to $150,000.00 per song); and how can the youth be able to afford this amount when they can buy an entire CD or DVD for under $20.00! They are still obligated to pay their student loans when they graduate and on top of that, they have to pay these ridiculous amounts?
Another new idea has emerged, and educators like this new concept by allowing students to download their textboks from online stores because of the cost of the books from the universities; which can be around $1,000 to $1,200 a year (http://cnnmoney.printhis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=Cut+school+costs%3A+Download+your+textbooks+-+Dec...). Professors also like that they can put lectures on "IPhones" and can also modify the textbooks in the pdf format to their likening(CNN-Money). Textbooks on average costs are increasing from 6% to 8% annually (CNN-Money). Now students can go to "Flat World Knowledge" and "Course Smart" to purchase some textbooks in digital format (CNN-Money). Some 2000 faculty members from over 500 universities signed a petition to have more affordable textbooks online and its time, because it is the 21st century!
Creative Commons has revolutionized the web not only in music but education, too. Creative Commons is also helping to expand sharing in the Middle East (Jordan in Nov, 2009), with Al Jazeera Network for blogs and other distribution media sharing (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/esther-wojcicki/creative-commons-in2009_b_366548.html). Stores are also using Creative commons license to promote their goods and services like "Nike and Best Buy"(huffingtonpost). Creative Commons is taking off and there is no stopping it; and maybe that would be a solution for the music and movie industries to go with Creative Commons under their protected copyright license, instead of spending millions of dollars targeting college-age people!
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I like how you used the example of the lawsuit against the young person for downloading music. The websites are the ones that enable this. Millions worldwide download all the time. Plus, servers like Limewire and KaZaA exist to allow P2P sharing and they always insist "don't download copyrighted material" but what kind of un-copyrighted material can you get on these servers anyway?
ReplyDeleteTextbook companies add a chapter to their books every year or just add a couple pictures here and there, and then use this as a reason to jack up the price by $10. There really is no way to stop the spread of all this media in cyberspace unless there were people policing the net with some global or national laws to back up their work. The media companies may as well accept that most of their content will be distributed online and just say, "Hey, let's license online to protect our media." Then they'd have a reason to go after people because they stole and disobeyed the rules of the Creative Commons license.
Shahnaz, I totally agree and to target a generation of people from age 18-34 is ridiculous; this is what your generation does share with one another via the internet; and if the music industry and movie industry wants money for their artists', then they should use the internet with software engineers to offer low prices or encrypt if at all possible their products from theft. There is just too many people on the net to go after and why just target the generation Y?
ReplyDeleteOh, I so totally agree with you on that one? I was thinking a few days ago, "What will happen when I hit 35? Why can't I be important to advertisers anymore?" I guess that'd be good for my money but I would feel left out to be honest. It would seem like companies wouldn't be so busy trying to impress me.
ReplyDelete*on that one!!!*
ReplyDeleteI'm a stickler for correct spelling and grammer. That first sentence wasn't supposed to be a question, it bothers me lol.