This was particularly important in the 18th century, when the invention of the printing press meant that intellectual property could be printed and distributed. It also meant that people would not only be able to read the work of others, but that they could then reprint that work as their own. For example, Daniel De Foe was produced pamphlets, newspapers and essays on mass so it was important that we was able to protect his intellectual property from people who might want to steal it.
It is not possible to copyright an idea, it is only possible to copyright actual work. Take for example, this theoretical situation:
- I have an idea for a chocolate bar that would make people lose weight
- Someone else creates the chocolate bar using all the ingredients I was planning to use
- I would have no right at all to take any action against the people who made the chocolate bar before me because all I had was an idea.
- If I had actually created the chocolate bar, or even written a recipe for it before the other person created it, then legally I would have the copyright to the chocolate, and would be able take legal action against the other individual.
If I wanted to keep ownership of the rights of my work then I could make a license agreement. This would mean that I would allow someone to pay to use my recipe once for a sum of money. If they then used it more than once then I could sue them for breach of copyright because the recipe would still belong to me. I could also sell my recipe but retain the royalties. This would mean that if someone made a lot of money using my recipe, then I would be entitled to part of the profit made for as long as a profit was being made.
If you a journalist for a paper then you are paid a wage for your work. This means that as soon as you receive money for your work then you no longer have anything to do with the work. Even if it makes a lot of money then that money would belong to the bosses of the newspaper, and you would not be entitled to any of i because you already exchanged the work for a sum of money.However, if you are a freelance journalist then you could sell the work for the newspaper to once, but you would still have copyright of the work and could then sell it to other newspapers to make more of a profit. So ultimately it would be beneficial to be a freelance journalist, as long as you produced work that was valuable!
It is possible to create something based on someones work, but unless you actually steal the exact work then no copyright laws are broken. A famous example of this are the Barry Trotter books written by Micheal Gerber, which are parodies of the Harry Potter books by J.K Rowling.
Greber writes about the adventures of Barry Trotter, Lon Measly and Ermine Cringer at the Hogwash school of wizadry and witchcrap. These are blatantly taken from J.K Rowling's books about Harry Potter, Ron Weasly and Hermione Granger at the Hogwarts school of wizadry and witchcraft. While it is clear to see the similarities, Greber only used Rowling's idea, not her work and so Rowling was not able to take any legal action against him. Hundreds of other parodies have made about the Harry Potter series from book to episodes of the Simpsons, but none of these breach copyright laws.
The Simpsons is an American cartoon which frequently uses the ideas of other people, without actually using their work. However, there are times when they actually do use the work, and in these cases they have to pay often huge amounts of money to use such work. The clip below is the introduction to season 21, episode 20 of The Simpsons:
The song being played is "Tick Tock" by Ke$ha, and is incredibly popular and recognisable. The fact that the actual song is used in The Simpsons means that the producers must have paid Ke$ha for the song. Below is a parody of "Tick Tock", the lyrics are different, but the music is the same. However, the song has become a sensation in itself, and the creators were not charged for breaching copyright laws:
This parody has become famous and has had nearly 9 million hits on YouTube, as well as being distributed as a ring tone, and is available to purchase on itunes. The creators of the parody have been able to make an incredible amount of money by taking Ke$ha's idea.
There is a loophole in copyright laws, which allows work to be stolen, as long as it is being reviewed. For example, if a student had to review a clip from a film, then they would be allowed to show that clip as part of their review without having to pay royalties to the producers.
As part of my A-level media studies course we had to make a music video. We were encouraged to use songs from the website www.unsigned.co.uk because we would not have to pay any money to the producers of the music. We were also allowed to take songs from signed artists, on the condition that we e-mailed the producers first and requested permission to use the song free of charge. We received this permission, but on the condition that we only put the video onto our A-level media blogs, and not any where else on the internet. We were told that if we did put our video any where else on the internet then we would be heavily fined.
People who do steal music/videos that are copyright can be heavily fined. An example of this is the case of 25 year old, Boston University student Joel Tenenbaum. In 2009, Tenenbaum was fined $675,000 for illegally downloading and sharing songs. This was only the second high profile case of this kind, but they are bound to become more frequent. Websites such as Limewire allowed people to easily download hundreds of songs for free, and very few people ever considered the implications of their actions; but I am sure that record producers will eventually fine everyone who has illegally downloaded their music.
Breaching copyright laws is a very serious crime, and hundreds of people across the world have been heavily fined for stealing other people's work. At the end of the day it is always best to make sure that you have paid for work that is not your own!
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