How does copyright online and/or Creative Commons influences the development of digital societies?
In digital era, all kinds of intellectual properties such as music, videos and artworks can be widely spread by various medium on the Internet. People have access to a wide range of resources and may ignore the importance of original work. Therefore, legislation on copyright online and specified community for obtaining licensed work are indispensable for the development of digital societies.
Copyright refers to the legal right to protects people’s authorship of original work so that the creator has the exclusive right to publish, copy or sell his or her own work. In order to reinforce the right of the owner, copyright law had been released all over the world. Copyright infringement on intellectual properties was then strictly combated. ‘The Grey Album’ which DJ Danger Mouse samples from both the Beatles’ White Album’ and Jay Z’s ‘Black Album’ suffered halt production in stores since it was accused to be violating copyright law by EMI company (Rob walker, 2004). Therefore, copyright is important for preventing abuse of personal work and maintaining harmonious digital environment.
At the same time, some creators hope their work are available and widely spread among public without the limitation of copyright law. In this case, the organization called Creative Commons provides creators the licenses to legally share their works while remaining their rights. Such organization enriches the material available online and adds the inspiration of artists to create great artworks. Also, it enables outstanding digital materials to be widely spread and accessed.
To sum up, the Creative Commons made up the limitation in the spread of useful digital materials, and makes digital resources more accessible and flexible to use. The copyright online can effectively prevent widespread infringement of personal original work, which is conducive to positively developing the digital society.
Reference:
Walker, R. (2004) The New York Times Magazines: The way we live now:3-21-04:Consumed; The Grey Album. Available from: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/21/magazine/the-way-we-live-now-3-21-04-consumed-the-grey-album.html (accessed 21/03/04).
Elsiefann 