Digitalization has enabled the transformation of intellectual property into electronic format. In this context, the importance of copyright becomes impossible to ignore. Copyright, as we know it, was creating during a time when digitalization had not happened. Thus, there are certain limitations that appeared with the coming of the digital era. Due to digitalization, copying art, of any form, has become easy, fast and cheap. Thus, the incentive of the artists that they used to get due to copyright has become jeopardized. According to researchers, the loss of royalty is depleting the desire to discover new ideas. The main idea of copyright has changed from what it was meant to do. The copyright was created so that content could be distributed widely and safely among willing users and seekers of knowledge. The copyright protected the interest of the author or creator and gave them a monetary compensation when their sources were used. Rather, in recent times, copyrights have been used by copyright holders to prevent people to access several materials and ideas, thus defeating the idea of copyrights. Due to digitalization, the idea of copyright is slowly becoming obsolete and copying ideas and information from someone else is becoming easier without giving them the credit. In this essay, the question whether the digital age has rendered copyright obsolete has been argued.
Copyright laws are rights of authors and creators to protect their original works from copy, counterfeit and illegal use. The works may range from literature, research, music, and artistic works to computer software and architecture. Earlier the copyright was generated the moment somebody produced their original work and there was a tangible medium for expression and was much easier to protect, manage and control. With digitalization, the works produced are in de-materialized form and thus can be copied, transformed and modified as the user pleases. This leads to creation of new ideas based on those modifications which the present copyright laws are not able to keep up, as the publication of original work in digital media allows free use, reuse, modification and remix of the content.
According to Fiesler, Feuston & Bruckman (2015), due to the popularization of social media, the idea of copyright is becoming much more important. Social media is used as a medium to showcase and promote artwork by several artists. The creative places that they use to showcase their talents have a grey area of rules regarding reusing and remixing the content of those places. This has given rise to several debates over the use of copyright and how digital media can use and enforce copyright in social media. Another issue that surfaces through the use of social media is the privacy and intellectual property statement written in the websites. Due to readability issues and non-compliance to the intellectual property laws, the users of social media and other digital media do not know what they are offering and engaging in. This creates further problem in protecting the copyrights of art and writing. Different websites have different terms and conditions regarding sharing and reproducing their website content. Many of the social media believes that when it comes to recreating content inspired from another work, the intention is what matters. If the reproduction or remix is intended for non-profit purposes, they are generally acceptable.
Many researchers believe that digitization has brought forth chances of preserving the precious material and books and has made accessing information much easier and universal. The libraries are enabling digitally accessible storage of their resources so that people all over the world is able to use them (Greenstein, Lerner and Stern, 2013). This has some negative implications as well. Due to the freedom that digitalization offers, violating copyrights have become much easier and harder to detect. Thus, people are having mixed reactions in producing and releasing their work over the Internet. Pandey and Mishra suggest that though digital transformation has its drawbacks, it is necessary evil and the academicians must be overly conscious of the ways they might violate the intellectual property rights of other researchers as the technological advancement makes the transformation mandatory (Fiesler and Bruckman, 2014).
The problem arises when copyrights are violated unwitting of the user. Many times, due to the limitations of the terms of use and privacy policies as well as people’s lack of knowledge about the copyright issues, content and ideas are used by people even without them knowing that they have violated someone’s copyright. It might also happen that some content, music or ideas are conceived from ideas or experiences that users are unaware of. For example, a recent news published in a well-known newspaper shows that famous artist Katy Perry has been accused of copyright violation by a Christian rapper Flame, where the former was ordered to pay $2.78 million as damage. Though the pop star claimed that they have never heard of Flame’s track, there was enough evidence to show that Flame’s track has been quite popular. This blatant copying of the song and its tunes begs the question whether the copy was intentional or not. While it seems that the copyright violation of copyright was obvious and intentional it is also possible that the copying had been inadvertent, an influence remaining in the back of mind that implemented during the creation of the pop star’s music.
The music industry faces the most complex and frequent copyright issues as is evident from the above incident. In this industry, the laws for copyright are truly blurred and is complex. This has happened due to the newly emerging technologies. Applications like Spotify has led to growth in the music industry and revenue collection. The music industry, the trends and style are constantly evolving while the copyright laws protecting the content and the music is not evolving much. The live streaming apps have made the lines more blurred as the existing copyright laws do not include any clause about live streaming or interactive music. Due to this complication and outdated regulations, the music industry is suffering setback in payouts. The music industry also suffers the theft problem that has emerged due to digitalization. Earlier, the music was available only in tangible form and had to be bought. This helped in maintaining sales which diminished significantly after the introduction of digitalization. The revenues decreased dramatically within some years. Many of the researchers opined that this fall in revenue is due to online theft of copyrighted items.
There are several other issues related to digitalization that affect the intellectual property rights and makes it more complex. The digitalization and technological advancement have enabled cheap reproduction of artwork and literature, it has enhanced the importance of copyright laws as a source of income, it has enabled the worldwide users’ access to copyrighted material for both profit and non-profit purposes and the globalization of intellectual property law. There are certain conditions that are mentioned in the intellectual copyrights which includes clauses like attribution, share-alike, non-commercial and no derivative work. The digitalization also has created problem in inheritance of copyrights. Previously, proprietorship of copyrights could be transformed to another person which has become almost impossible due to digital technologies. Many of the researches have argued the point that the span of the validity of copyrights should be reduced so that free flow of ideas and intellect can take place. Many of these scientists believe that copyright hinders the flow of ideas and intellect, blocks the birth of new concepts and ideas. By reducing the longevity of the copyrights, the problem that copyright brings with it can be minimized.
Despite all the debates that are going around in the matter suggesting that copyright has become obsolete, there are equally pressing arguments and instances that shows that copyright is still equally relevant and supports the free flow of knowledge and ideas if used properly. In this instance, the mention of fan fiction becomes mandatory. Fan fiction as genre became mainstream literary initiative, a phenomenon born purely due to digitalization. Fan fictions base their stories on characters and plots drawn from an original work of another author and provides their own storyline, climax and ending for the story. The production of these stories is mostly non-commercial and thus they do not violate the copyrights of the original work. This genre is extremely famous and draws millions of followers to read, share and enjoy the world that is held dear by them. The most popular example of this is the Harry Potter series, where thousands of authors take the basic plot and takes the story in a completely new direction. It brings out imagination in many people and common readers are introduced with the idea of freedom of expression and thinking. They understand that one story can have different endings each viable in their own way. This also enables the literary work to remain in people’s mind for a longer time and increases the sale of the original work for many years. Many of the authors while encourage fan fictions, there are also some that do not support it in any way. They believe that the characters that the fans portray do not capture the essence of their characters. Though there are mixed reactions of authors regarding fan fiction, the popularity of it cannot be denied.
The importance of copyrighting or protecting intellectual property is increasing due to the open nature of online interfaces. There are multiple platforms that are trying to protect the owners or creators’ interest. Platforms like YouTube and Spotify is ensuring the rights and interest of the users. The popularity of the channel suggests that they have successfully managed to safeguard the interest of the artists. There are young entrepreneurs and influencers appearing in the social sites that are earning substantial amount of money through original work. They also perform caricature, mimicry and parody of well-known works through giving the original writers credits. This enables them to maintain a fair use of the content. It also helps the original writers and artists as it increases their popularity as well.
There are several measures that online content publishers and websites that publish such contents might take to ensure that both the users and the viewers are well aware of the rights that they have and what constitutes violation. Another challenge in safeguarding digital intellectual content is the categorization. Due to digital methods of transmission and storage of data, no work can be particularly categorized into only one genre. This categorization is the key which will determine the rights and benefits that the creator will enjoy from his work. For example, it is difficult to categorize a poetry recital. It is on one hand a sound recording and a performance while on the other hand it is a dramatic and literary work. The traditional boundaries or conditions of categorization is greatly disrupted in the digital age and experts find it difficult to categorize artworks. In order to mitigate these problems, new copyrighting methods and approaches are taken. One method is popularizing in this aspect which is the modification of the copyright laws, copyrighting software that embed codes invisibly and development of software that can detect copyright violations. These methods are further inspiring the creators of art to generate new ideas. Moreover, information literacy and awareness regarding the copyright laws will also enable protection of the intellectual properties.
The above discussion clearly indicates that digital age has brought forth new challenges and difficulties in the context of copyrighting and protection of intellectual property. The ease that digital mediums provide for copying and transmitting data gives way to the rising problems. In this regard, copyright laws and awareness of the people regarding intellectual property and creator’s right is the way to mitigate the risks.
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