It may not always seem this way, but in general, most people
respect laws – except when they feel those laws are unjust. So, why do so many
choose to ignore copyright laws? The hard fact is that a sizable portion of the
population seems to believe that copyright laws exist merely for the benefit of
large corporations who want to stick their greedy little hands deeper into your
wallet and overcharge you for music, movies and other media.
What’s often forgotten is that the Internet – the same tool
that makes it so easy for us to illegally distribute and attain copyrighted
material – is also the instrument that allows creative personalities to bypass
the big media outlets and self-publish their material. And, copyright laws are
there to protect these startups and independents just as much as the big
brands.
If people really want to fight back against the
multi-billion dollar corporations, then they should be thinking about how they
can help support these indie producers. Respecting the intellectual property
rights of these producers would go a long way toward providing that support.
Still, this message just doesn’t seem to be getting out.
Why? Well, the big media brands are just so loud, their voices are the only
ones being heard. With some of the things they say and do, it’s no wonder that
people are frustrated and looking for ways to fight back.
For example, lawyers and lobbyists from the entertainment
industry like to throw out numbers about how much money and how many jobs are
being lost due to copyright violations, but they don’t really tell us how they
came up with these numbers or present them in a way that’s meaningful to the
average Joe. As a result, people look at these numbers and figure they’re just
a bunch of fiction created by slippery accountants. That just makes people even
more bitter. So, in a very real sense, these types of analyses are having the
exact opposite of their intended effects.
Rob Reid gave a brilliant TED talk related to this very subject and
coined a new term: Copyright Math. Here’s the video of that talk – take a look
and let us know what you think! Fair warning: sarcasm ahead.
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