The Case for Copyright Reform - review (week 5)

In this opinion review I am going to talk about Rick Falkvinge and Christian Engström's work: The Case for Copyright Reform. 

Today’s copyright legislation is out of balance. Frankly speaking, it even turned an entire generation of young people into criminals in the eyes of the law. In the most cases I don't see anything illegal in the file sharing, especially if it is used in non-commercial purposes. From the introduction, it was obvious that authors share the same opinion. Therefore, they introduced some of the ideas in order to reform the current copyright system.

In today's world, copyright imposes serious restrictions on what ordinary people can do in their lives. I absolutely agree that sharing copies, making use of somebody else’s copyrighted work, should never be prohibited if it is done by private individuals without a profit motive. However, we should not forget about the fact that you can not claim yourself an author if you do not appear to be the one. 

If we talk about commercial monopoly and the protection time, it always depends on what side you are on. If you are a writer you most definitely won't agree with shortening the protection time. However, sometimes it can be quite difficult to locate the rights owner. Nowadays, if the work has little or even no commercial value it can be still covered by a copyright. In these cases I would recommend to create a special public database, where it is required to register the right on your exclusive project. 

The topic about Free Sampling must be interesting to the musicians and film makers. It could give such a boost to their careers and projects they are in. And as an ordinary listener, I don't mind if an author can bring new light in the song by reusing something.

In addition to what was written before, I would agree that copyright is threatening people's fundamental rights of receiving and imparting the information. As an ordinary Internet user, I would say that I am not even annoyed by the fact that something is not free, but by the fact that it is unreasonably expensive. In my opinion, everybody, including people with limited economic means, has to have access to the world’s culture.

In conclusion, I want to say that The Internet is the one of the greatest things that has happened to mankind. Internet is the most fantastic public library that has ever been created. But at this moment copyright is putting obstacles in the way of fundamental rights, including the right for private communication and even for freedom of information.


References:

http://falkvinge.net/wp-content/uploads/large/The%20Case%20For%20Copyright%20Reform%20(2012)%20Engstrom-Falkvinge.pdf

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