copyright

Some people break the law and do not even know they do it. This happens all the time with copyright laws. Copyright is said to be "a form of protection provided by the laws of the U.S. to the authors of "original works of authorship" including literature, art, drama, architecture, and music" (Virgina Montecino, 1996). One thing people who own the copyright can do is give others the ok to use their information. Their is another law of fair use that states the limitations of copyright (U.S. Copyright Office, 2009). Their are four factors when determining if teh use of informtation is fair. These four factors include " purpose and character of the use, including whether such use of the commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes; the nature of copyrighted work; amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and effect of the use upon the potential marked for, or value of, the copyrighted work" (U.S. Copyright Office, 2009). The way to avoid copyright issues is to get the permission to use the copyright owners information. if peoplea reunable to get their so so, then they should not use the information, unless it follows the fair use law.

The history of all this madness began in 1970, when the first law was enacted. In 1976, the law was lengthened to the be fifty years after the death of the copyright owner (Virginia Montecino, 1996). Any copyrighted information after january 1978 had copyright on it for the life of the author plus seventy years (Virginia Montecino, 1996).

When it comes to issues of copyright on the internet, it is a big deal. This is the biggest threat of all to copyright. Teh internet contains tons of information tha tis all copyrighted (Virginia Montecino, 1996). Copyright can be a huge problem for people that get on the internet alot and see things they want to use becuase pretty much everyhting on the internet is copyrighted. Therefore, these people have to be careful when coming across emails, articles, books, pictures, graphs, software, books, and news (Virginia Montecino, 1996). Everything online what is protected includes "links, original text, graphics, audio, video, html, list of websites, and all other elements that make material original" (Virgina Montecino, 1996). There are alot of issure about copyright and the internet. Some issues are being resolved and others never will be.

I found a lawsuit of a company that deals with copyrighting. This company was Google. Google is being accused of a "massive copyright infringement" dealing with them putting books online and not getting permission to do so. (Wired, 2005). These books have been put in libraries, schools, and the community, but have not been given the permission to put them on the internet. The copyright owners want the court to block Google from using their information. The lawsuit says that Google should know how the copyright law works and they should have asked their permission, but did not (Wired, 2005). However, Google said they are publishing books and will continue to do so. Google tells us that they protect the copyright of these authors by giving bibliographies and giving a summary instead of the whole text (Wired, 2005). The Google compay offers to guide readers to libraries and booksellers who want more than what they have to offer on their sites (Wired, 2005).

Works Cited

U.S. Copyright Office. (2009). Copyright. retrieved September 9, 2009, from http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html

Virginia Montecino. (1996). Copyright and the Internet. retrieved September 9, 2009, from http://mason.gmv.edu/~montecin/copyright-internet.htm

Wired. (2005). Copyright Lawsuit Targets Google. retrieved Septemeber 9, 2009, from http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/2005/09/68928