Copyright laws?

Question

What do you think about copyright laws? I personally think there stupid. I firmly believe that if you buy something, YOU OWN IT. If you buy a print from a photographer, that photographer not only sells and makes money off the image, which is all they should want, but I believe they also sell their rights to the image. If a photographer sells a photograph it no longer belongs to them, it belongs to whoever buys it. If that person wants to create a beautiful piece of art from this photo so be it, if they want to sell it in a yard sell, so be it. Bottom line is that the photographer sold and made money off there work already. Why should they care what happens to it after they make their money off of it? Personally I would love for people to turn my photography into beautiful artwork

When you buy the ticket you're not buying the stadium, you're buying the ticket to have access to the game. However if you buy the stadium, then it belongs to you, and not the builder. And shooting people is a whole different crime, and I think murder is a little more severe then a little copyright law. You're comparing two completely different crimes, because I certainly don't think murdering someone is good. To me copyright laws would be like someone selling you a house they built, and then they come in and tell you how to decorate it. I also believe that copyright laws fail tremendously; they can't be upheld, there not enforced. I think copyright laws are good, but I think they should be rephrased.

Answer 1

Do you like watching television? What if the people that wrote the scripts and produced the shows didn't get paid? The brightest and best would find another line of work and whatever did get on the tube would be pathetic indeed.

Goverment has copyright laws because it protects the interests of people like us to get access to creative works, books, pictures, movies and such. Without protections for original authorship, not too many creative people would offer to share thier works publicly.

The copyright law is just a framework within which publication and production can proceed in an orderly and fair manner. It insures that all use is covered by contract, for without a contract then copyright laws kick in to stop infringements.

When you bought a CD, did you sign a contract with the record company, performers and composers to give them a fair shake. If you have "rights", then why can't you tell the record company to stop make more CDs, after all doesn't their sales impact your ablity to give them away? No you didn't need to negotiate a contract because the government has effectively done that for you. The record company is willing to let you have a copy of the music because they feel copyright rules can protect them from piracy.

If the government felt that giving you unlimited permission to distribute copies somehow worked for the greater good then trust me, it would be allowed. As it stands, your position that copyright is stupid does not fit needs of the rest of the world.

Answer 2

Yes, you own what you buy, which is whatever the other person was selling.

But if you buy a ticket to watch the football game live, does that mean you own the stadium? No. It means you purchased a license to have specific limited use of that stadium.

Same with copyright law. If you actually buy the copyright to a work of art (picture, movie, song, whatever), then you own the artwork and can do whatever you with with it. But if you only purchase a license to use it, then that's all you get.

You say that if someone sells a print, you believe they are also selling their rights to the image. You're welcome to believe that. But that is not what the law says. Just like you're welcome to believe that it's ok to go around shooting people. But that's not what the law says.

If you want your photographs and other creative works to be used by others and turned into beautiful artwork, then you have every right to do that. Release the work into the public domain. It put it under a creative commons license, that allows anyone to make derivative works. That's up to you.

But by the same token, if someone creates a work of art, they own it -- just like if the build a stadium they own it. And it's up to them whether it is sold, leased, given away, and who can use it and for how long. That's why it's called intellectual property. Becuase it's still the property of the creator.

Answer 3

The reason for copyright law is to allow the creator to sell it. If you produced a photo or a written work, and anyone could reproduce it & sell it for whatever it cost them to reproduce it, you couldn't possibly sell it for enough to make the effort of creation worth your while. Why would anyone produce a movie if they couldn't sell tickets to watch it? Or a song if they couldn't get anyone to pay for it?

In the days before mass reproduction was possible; before the printing press, reproducing art & literature was so difficult & time consuming (remember all those monks copying books by hand?) that there was no need for legal copyright protection. Even then most artists didn't make money from the sale of their work. They worked on commission from patrons such as churches & nobles, who paid them to create the work & then kept it for themselves -- or displayed it for political reasons. The present copyright systen allows artists to be free of such patronage and earn an independent living from their effort & creativity.

Answer 4

It's just a protection against people trying to misuse the intent of the law and I agree with you about private property but this is more towards commercial property like pirated cd's or dvd's.