How would you feel about an idea conjured up in your mind stolen, tweaked and fixed to become a money making machine (keeping in mind none of this money making is for your benefit)?
Not too happy? I didn’t think I would be either until I realised through the lecture and readings this week that this is an everyday practise, this is the basis of issues surrounding intellectual property and copyright.
Week in week out I’d like to think my blogs are innovative and unique- then I realised that I only ever compose my blogs after reading the material of students first ,and drawing upon their blogs for inspiration and other ideas (sorry, guys!). But does this give every student in DIGC202 a right to accuse me of breaching the law and stealing what is not rightfully mine?
It’s another touchy topic we’re trolling through this semester however I think Lessig’s Free Culture reading provided a nice summary of what he deemed appropriate in the world of copyright with his references to Disney. He explained that Disney ‘builds upon the culture and makes it something different’, might I mention this idea of ‘different’ also being extremely profitable. It seems a shame that the old copyright laws of allowing 30 years before intellectual property can hit the public domain are well and truly buried. It is highly unlikely that these laws will resurface anytime soon, so the clash of the copyright will continue.
hey naomi
ReplyDeleteIt is funny like you said that an institution such as Disney may take the ideas of someone else and the create something different (and profitable). Yet now if someone took Disney's ideas - im sure mickey mouse wouldnt be too happy!
I think that in some instances copyright seems to be way too long, and goes beyond the needs of an business making its quick buck, though Im sure that copyright isnt going anywhere anytime soon and is here to stay :|
Hey Naomi,
ReplyDeleteYou made an interesting point there. Don't worry I sometimes do the same too(if it makes you feel any better C:). I would admit, sometimes I do look through others' blog before posting to get some ideas and inspiration. But hey, even before we post on our blogs, we too had already read through others' work piece(our weekly readings). Therefore, almost nothing we produce today is original. Because before we produce something, don't we do our 'research' before hand? That is already 'stealing/ taking' others' idea. I'm not sure if you would agree with me on this. :D
Natalie
My lawyers will be in touch soon, Naomi :) But i agree, of course you'd be upset if your ideas were helping someone else make more money. It's like that "ah! i should have thought of that!" Moment that we have sometimes. We can debate what should be copyrighted, when it should expire, who should monitor it all day. But i think it's something we have to deal with until we do reach a consensus about copyright and IP, and who knows when that'll happen.
ReplyDeleteIt is a very interesting point you make about Disney. And I guess in many ways a lot of people build on something to make it different and profitable. It does not make it right, but that seems to be how things are.
ReplyDeleteNatalie mentions that before we produce something we research is essentially stealing or taking some one else ideas. I guess thats why referencing is drilled into us at uni so much.
I think we should be more open to the distinction between 'stealing' someone's ideas outright, and building upon them to make something different, as you point out with the Disney example. At the moment, copyright laws don't make that distinction, to use any part of someone's work is a breach of the law. It's just like the old adage that nothing we create is truly original, however, I myself see no problem with that.
ReplyDeleteThe idea you raised at the start is one of the core arguments for copyright, it protects content creators and establishes a monopoly for them to make as much profit as possible, or at least that’s the theory behind the process anyway.
ReplyDeleteTake for example the University who own all the rights to information produced by PhD students in the Computer Science Faculty. Any program that they develop as a part of their work with UoW becomes the property of UoW and the developer gains no profit for it no matter how successful it is. This is of course unless the University feels like paying them for it (side note – not aware of any cases of this happening).
In this situation even though copyright is adhered to the original developer is trapped, unable to gain credit or money which for me is one of the problems of copyright. It doesn’t protect the developer but instead it protects the owner of the copyright, which in many cases the developer is not aware that they have transferred.
Although I cannot see an alternative in terms of ensuring profit, I can say that the current system is too ripe for abuse to leave as it currently is.
Ahhhh i too am guilty for checking out my peers blogs. Originality in this world is a hard concept. We all gain our inspiration from those around us, or those we aspire to be. In-reference to this subject, we are all provided with an idea (the recommended topics), but it is our individual take on the idea which separates one-from-another.
ReplyDelete