The question of what exactly constitutes copyright infringement in the digital age continues to generate debate, and has been the subject of numerous court cases. The article by David Kravets (2010) titled “Google wins Viacom copyright lawsuit,” highlights the outcome of a case in which Viacom was suing one of Google’s subsidiaries YouTube for copyright infringement, by claiming that the video and content sharing giant had infringed on its copyrights by publishing content that was protected despite being aware it was copyrighted. The judge in the case, however, ruled that YouTube had complied with the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) by taking down the content immediately after receiving notice from the aggrieved party. Further, the judge argued that simply being aware of infringing activity was not enough to find YouTube guilty, as ruling against the DMCA’s provision for a takedown notice, would threaten internet freedom, and its popularity as a participatory medium. However, despite the existence of the law in question, as well as the ruling, Kravets (2010) argues that copyright infringement laws governing the internet and online use, is still unclear and leaves numerous loopholes.
This view is also evident in Geoffrey Fowler’s article, “Libraries Have a Novel Idea,” which highlight a new drive by a group of libraries, led by a non-profit digital library, the Internet Archive, to create a one stop online website for checking out e-books. The author argues that this raises significant questions regarding the copyrights of the books authors, as the drive seems to be overlooking the likelihood of copyright infringement that is going to occur due to the drive. Despite the concerns, Fowler cites an author who actually feels that sharing their content over the internet, will be a good thing, and is likely to encourage the reading culture.
References
Fowler, G. (June 29, 2010). Libraries Have a Novel Idea. The Wallstreet Journal. Retrieved from http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052748703279704575335193054884632?mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052748703279704575335193054884632.html
Kravets, D. (June 24, 2010). Google Wins Viacom Copyright Lawsuit. Wired.co.uk. Retrieved from http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2010-06/24/google-wins-viacom-copyright-lawsuit
Discussion Paragraph
Pamela Vaughan’s article “Copyright Law on the Internet Is a Total Train Wreck Right Now,” highlights the very challenges that are faced by internet users, and victims whose content is duplicated unintentionally by unsuspecting users. She argues that the lack of clear cut laws that take into consideration the fact that the internet is all about content sharing, hence simply trying to deal with all the copyright infringement cases using a single law is not possible. There is a need to redraft the laws in a way that discourages copyright infringement, without harming the essence of the internet; content sharing.
Reference
Vaughan, P. (June 10, 2013). Copyright Law on the Internet Is a Total Train Wreck Right Now. Hubspot. Retrieved from http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/internet-copyright-law-failure
|
Grammar
D
|
Formatting
D
|
Organization
B
|
Style
B
|