CopyLeft vs CopyRight
Whether it’s the “Left” or the “Right; they both exist for a common good and that is to make the world the better place. It’s not wise to hit our left hand with our right, but join them together and combine the power into one. However it’s easy to be said than done because we all want to win, or right against our opponents. The problems that these two concepts have to face are should there be more regulation or no regulation? It’s the same problem with our economic crisis. The left-wing (democratic) putted too many regulations while the right-wing (Republicans) deregulated it. And look what a big mess we’re in.
Copyright in this case is similar to Democratic. They want to regulate; protect ownership, squelching and discouraging our mind from innovation new ideas. A group of students at Swarthmore College took the demos from Diebold Election System and posted it on their website. The Demos featured Diebold employees’ candid discussion of flaws in the company’s software and warning that the computer network was poorly protected from hackers. Luckily the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) saved them a heart-beat away from being sued. The DMCA is designed to protect copyright material on the web, the act makes it possible for an internet service provider to be liable for the material posted by it user. This helped allow the information to continue stay on their websites. This information is vitally important to the public and it should be bought to light rather than hiding behind a closed-room.
The existence of Internet is a game-changer for copyright because now information floats freely and easier to access. However this is frightening the creators such as: recording, publishing, and movies industries. These people need copyright to protect their career which is a must. However intellectual property is a different issue. CopyLeft exist to better improve the protection of intellectual property because they thinks it belong to everyone once it enter the public. This is considering a free culture movement because it’s nothing more than just ideas. And ideas should be share and improve upon for better outcome. Everyone has ideas and the point is to share it not limiting it by putting copyright on it. The ideas of giving something away mean losing it doesn’t apply here because now with CopyLeft giving away means gaining.
Nothing can be creates from thin-air. Thus we need external information to create something. In short, we need something to create something. If this is the case then how can we own license to anything when creating requires borrow of something? Professor Jonathan Zittrain, Yochai Benker, and other members of intellectual hub of the Copy Left think that ideas should be share once it enters the public which is why they oppose copyright.
Even our founding father Thomas Jefferson thinks that copyright is evil. Our brain exists to think and create. And having copyright is restricting our accessibilities to the information we need to create something better. However lets not pass the line. The exist of Copyright is not pure evil. They’re there to protect people to a large extent. Without them people won’t make movies, write books or creating anything. Many small filming companies had to quit due to illegal copies and bootlegs. How to enhance regulation effectively is the main goal. Put it where it see fit. It’s critical decision, good and evil needs to co-exist to keep things balance because the world is an imperfect place.
I’m a big supporter of Copy Left, however I also support the exit of copyright. They’re equally important just like having both hands. Finding a common ground is what we need not to see how do better than who. A good example of this is our economic crisis. Too much regulation doesn’t work but no regulation at all is a disaster. Same thing can happen to this matter if we shift over to either side.
