Blog 5: How do copyrights affect your experience of content online— or do they?
Personally, when it comes to copyright, I mostly am guilty of watching copyrighted programs on YouTube (hard to resist when the entire series of Criminal Minds is a click away). While I used to find music online, programs like Pandora and Spotify have really eliminated my need to physically download the music to my computer, when I can stream it for free--listening to ads here and there doesn't bother me. The other area where I have personally noticed copyright being ignored is on Tumblr and Pintrest--while you can often link to the source, a lot of people neglect to do so--particularly with photos from Flickr that are not under the creative commons license. I will admit, I have occasionally taken screen shots of images on flickr (or viewed the source and searched until i found the correct .jpg address), and used them as wallpapers on my computer, phone, etc.
While copyright is very important, especially in protecting one's creative work and intellectual property--when it's used on a small scale--watching an episode of a television program, or using a photo as a wallpaper on my computer, or if I take a protected image from Flickr and put it on my Tumblr--what is the harm? I'm not claiming I own these things, and I'm not making money off any of these activities. Yes, with Criminal Minds by watching them on YouTube, I am less likely to purchase the seasons on DVD, and by not watching it as it airs online, they are missing on ratings/possible advertising revenue--but in the long run is that more important than a fan's engagement with a franchise?
Lately, especially with the threat of SOPA, the demise of MegaVideo, and many social networking sites beefing up their terms of service and privacy policy, (including Tumblr's hilarious update two days ago, which includes: "You have to be at least 13 years old to use Tumblr. We're serious: it's a hard rule, based on U.S. federal and state legislation, even if you're 12.9 years old. If you're younger than 13, don't use Tumblr. Ask your parents for an Xbox or try books.")--copyrights have become a more serious issue. But how do you track unapproved usage of your content? How do you press charges--do you file a lawsuit against the person who illegally uploaded the video? Or do you go after the 30,000 people who viewed it? I think the main thing that has become difficult about copyrights and keeping them under control is figuring out where to draw the line between what is okay and what isn't.
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