Lets Talk Copyright!

This week for my Mass Media and Society class my assignment is to address the issue of copyrights and how long that they are in effect. Currently a copyright lasts for a lifetime plus seventy years. After the lifetime plus seventy years the copyrighted item loses its copyright and becomes available for public use. The length that a copyright lasts as raised serious questions about a copyrights effect on free speech. Personally, I believe that a lifetime plus seventy years is an adequate length of time. I feel that it is important to protect a person’s work.

Music tends to be the topic which draws the most attention, especially in today’s society with all of the piracy that exists through the internet. There are many issues to consider. First is the financial effects that taking somebody’s music can cause. Illegally downloading music costs artists and writers money from record sales.

In some cases taking a person’s copyrighted work is the same as plagiarism. It is important that the work of people who right the music we listen to is protected. The issue that most compares to plagiarism, would be copyrighted art work. This refers to companies’ logos and symbols. Taking these logos to use for something that they were not initially meant to be used for could give a misconception of a company’s intent. This could, much like with music, have an adverse effect on the financial well being of a company. The use of music to indorse a policy or position that the musician and/or composer does not agree with could ultimately give the impression that the artist or composer also support that cause. If the cause is a controversial one then again it could have a negative effect on that person and his or her career.

It is important that we protect the rights of people who work hard and have that work copyrighted. If people feel that others are take advantage of their work, then they might feel inclined to stop doing their work and we would not have the music or art work that our society enjoys so much. So I disagree with those that say that copyrights last too long, in my opinion they should be more like patents and last forever! Only then will people’s work truly be protected.