Those were the days where "what is mine is mine and you can only take it if you can win me". Things then turned around and became lets have a mutual understanding if we can share what we have at hand. However the current situation at hand is considered a new trend all by itself where by "your things will however soon be mine". This example of statement are actually being referred to the uncontrollable issue of copyright infringement that is happening everywhere around the world.
Copyright infringement is the act of using other people's work for your own use without any permission or acknowledgment towards the actual source. the concept of copyright infringement however is very new as it is developed through the development of technology. Usually this term of related to issues that concern technological stuff such as music, designs or any sort of plan. This act of stealing is not only done by professionals such as producing pirated copies of work but also by the public itself. The simple act of downloading a material from the internet that is from another source which actually does not have the permission to do so rather than the original source that may allows us to do so is also could be convicted to the copyright infringement. Copyright infringement is associated with all originals works that has been certified and protected by the copyright law. Thus miss use of such material that is being protected may land you in trouble.
The statement may arise that "im not doing anything wrong" by the public that is downloading such material. Justification can be made that im just downloading what is made available and the actual culprits are the people that are actually being the middle person. However, even the law states that a bigger punishment will be given to the person that is the actual convict behind a murder rather than the murderer that did it. The person that is taking the trouble to use other peoples work without permission is because he has demands that supports his deed which is the public. Thus everything seems to be interrelated. It may seem as an harmless act eventually for such a thing but just take time to think the actual hardship to create an original work which consist the sweat of day and night work, time, money & sacrifice. Then comes some guys in the middle to take some of the credits for free. Well the actual world does not simply works like that.
The example of law that protects a copyrighted material are laws such as copyrights, trademarks, and patents. these law is the basic type of laws that will be used to go against cases concerning copyright infringement. However the the world is not a cruel place as you may think after all. We however can use the other peoples material to help in our work such as scholarly journals and articles. There is however proper ways to do so such as referencing, citing or acknowledging the actual creator. If the owner is reachable its good to ask permission to use the material. the material used however must not be misinterpreted or the actual meaning must not be damaged due to some changes done. this may also give possibilities fro the owner to charge you.
In a nut shell, always remember that we must treat others the way we wanted to be treated. put yourself in the position of the other person and think for a moment how if you took all the trouble to come out with your original creation and some geniuses comes and takes it away from you. Thus make sure to respect originality and if indeed you want to use them to help out in your original work, make sure you do it the right way or...SOMEBODY GONNA GET HURT REALLY BAD!!!!...SOMEBODY :-)
Hey Kiru
ReplyDelete"Do unto others as you want other to do unto you." is what i think you are trying to tell in your article. Malaysia has a high piracy rate and that is because people don't intend to purchase the original product, their thoughts are why spend so much when i can get it at much more cheaper price. Same goes to those who download, now that we are all using mp3 players, downloading would be better choice as it is already an mp3 file format when downloaded, it save them time and money that way as if they were to do it the legal way they would have to buy the CD and then rip and convert the song before being able to put into the mp3 player.
However, i am grateful that such a law is implemented because without it there will be no innovation and creativity in the people which may result in a bleak future for us.