Intellectual Rights and Copyright Issues

Title of the article: The nonsense of copyright in libraries (digital information and the right to copy)

Author: Paul Staincliffe

Publisher: University of Waikato Library

URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10760/8241

   Copyright is an issue which is of import to the field of librarianship. Copyright has originated from the exercise of censorship by the Catholic Church over written works which also circulated in Universities of during the Middle Ages.  In its historical background, copyright was first implemented as a method of monopoly by “Stationers” who supplies manuscripts used in scholarly discourse and lectures, stationers were given the special privileges on patents and right to printing and selling books. After license was bought, classical books were given for the company’s right for them to recopy it. The Berne Convention in eighteen-eighty five provided for the copyright protection of unpublished works of its nationals and of other member countries. 

   In the discourse of copyright is the import of recouping costs. Publishers depend on copyright for controlling the distribution, selling rights to overseas publications, translations and film rights. In the film industry, piracy also becomes a tool for “exposure” or illegal advertising for videos and films.  In the music industry, legal CD sales have fallen considerably and the estimated value of pirate sales even as 2000 has amounted to $US 4.2 Billion. On the other hand, copyright has its weaknesses which can be used against copyright. One, once a work is published to the public; it subsumes the public’s ownership. Also, all creations are based to some extent on anything which came before it, such that all creative works are a ‘copy’ or annotation.

   The digital environment offers new challenges for the regulation that copyright seeks to implement. Basically, copyright materials become more vulnerable to unauthorized copying as new technologies have overcome the restrictions upon the dissemination of materials which existed firsthand in the analog environ. Recopying digital works is almost costless and effortless. Also, the notion of providing copyright for digitally-created materials has been proven to be not true in at least one experiment conducted. Legislative efforts also conflict and impede digital plans of libraries as it conflicts with the right to access information and the intellectual copyright of authors.

Three things I learned from my Reading Assignment:

1. Copyright was first used in applying censorship and monopoly during the Middle Ages, through censoring materials of the Church and licensing and providing sole rights for 'Stationers' or publishers in Universities during the Middle Ages. The first stationer was in 1272.

2. It was during the period of the Middle Ages that the notion of copyright was born. After the licensing of classical materials, books were entered in the company's right or a "payment" of a small fee. Thus, the right to the copying of the classical materials.

3. Copyright can be a protection but it is intrinsically financial in nature. Although made for protecting copies of intellectual material and creators of this works, copyright has provided for the means of control, and even the breeding of the concept of "open-source materials" and even  piracy for copyright means buying the rights to use intellectual works.

Application:

Most libraries and individuals opt to use open-source digital materials to cut cost in buying copyright protected software, and intellectual works. Open source materials help in providing free information in the digital platform, whereas providing the mode for intellectual freedom.