Everyone has an opionin on what the copyright law really means. To me, it meant that you could not copy the ideas or words from someone else. It also meant that you could not copy something straight off the internet. After I did some reasearch, I learned more about the law and what it means exactly. Now that I know more about the law my opionin about it has changed. I now know that the copyright law covers ideas, words, pictures, art works, songs, etc. I also discovered there are some things that you can use without the fear of plagiarism, those things are considered public domain. That includes phonebooks, documents written by the government, and pieces that are more than 75 years old.
While researching, I came across an internet piracy case. In this case, four Swedish men were accused of creating a website offering links and help to download songs, films, video games, etc. for free to their members. These men were found guilty and were sentenced to one year in prison. They were also forced to pay about $3.6 million a piece. These men were breaking the law by setting up a site and allowing members to download freely. I think the punishment they recieved is fair because they broke the law and should be punished for what they did.
Reading about copyright law and internet piracy I now understand that you have to be careful with what you do on the internet. I also learned that when you are unsure whether or not something is public domain, you should cite the source where it came from. No matter the use of the plagiarized, you will most likely get caught. To sum up what I learned, be careful with what you take from the internet.
No comments:
Post a Comment