Interconnection of Copyright, Law and True Art

My question, "Should teachers, artists/musicians, and digital creators be allowed to breach copyright law to utilize valuable information?" will mainly focus on the Justice vs. Mercy dilemma structure. In this case, I will be focusing on three several perspectives, (teachers, artists/musicians, and digital creators) in which copyright is important to follow. In other words, should they follow the equal application of the rules or go towards the compassion of others? Therefore, this proposal of an ethical question and ethical dilemma expresses all sides are challenging paths to follow. One side, being copyright. All should be fair and equal towards the application of the rules. On the other hand, being the work that each person provides compassion for individuals on their proper audience for their own actual benefit. Fair use is what most people use to utilize information. In a broader context, fair use is a concept that authorizes copying or using, of copyrighted material done for a limited and specific "purpose.". Fair use is held under four categories. According to Clark , Brandon W. "MVS Filewrapper." Copyright Infringement and Fair Use in a Digital World, the main elements are the 'Purpose and character of the use, including whether the use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes, nature of the 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 market for or value of the copyrighted work.' Throughout this essay, I will be describing and demonstrating how all three perspectives can be harmed from copyright overall.

Ethical Issue

In order to determine whether a teacher, artist/musician or a digital creator who’ve chosen to avoid copyright law, I will be analyzing the three sides of the proposed ethical dilemma. First, I will be showing the positives and negatives of teachers in the work they give to their students and the proper legal classwork and information that they can provide to them for their education and learning process. Secondly, I will be demonstrating the position of artists/musicians of what they should be careful throughout what they produce, in phases of sampling lyrics and sampling music with a different feel added to it and concerns towards copyright. Now, the side of digital creators. Digital creators follow Fair use, because it is essential to credit those who inspired one person to do the same artwork and modify their piece differently. Janes Haskins "How to Copyright Digital Media." she states "Copyright in digital media is a rapidly evolving area of the law as new technologies develop and lawmakers struggle to keep up with the changing nature of the way people access and transmit information online." Therefore, I will show the positives and negatives to digital creators in terms of designs and photography. Little people in today’s age do not know what copyright is. Plagiarism plays a major role in copyright. If someone were to decide the fact that stealing something that you created without credits, it’s not considered to be ethical at all. If people want to use something that someone created, they must show credits to that person they grabbed the work.

Methodology

My intention in explaining my view on the ethical question is to have the addition of primary sources in my proposed ethical dilemma. In terms of primary sources, it will include two interviews, as one being me interviewing a digital creator, Jim, and ways of how copyright can affect the work they create. Jim Cropp is a 10-year-experienced photographer and digital creator. Another interview will consist of a teacher at my local high school, Ms.Murray, asking her the limitations of lessons and classwork she provides and what she does to prevent copyright from happening.

I will also be utilizing secondary sources to improve my stance on copyright strikes. My secondary sources will consist of only scholarly articles that can help me get better on who is vulnerable to copyright. Adding on, I will mention how artists/musicians can also be impacted by copyright in the process of an interview with Jim and his experience with working with music. I tend to talk about the process in which ways, positive and negative, musicians/producers can use fair use/sampling/modification as an advantage or disadvantage.

Positives/Negatives on Copyright towards Teachers

Teachers are always subject when it comes to providing their students with information that students can use to increase their learning and fulfill their education. Although teachers are limited to the point they can only access particular information, they have the ability to use fair use and provide credits to the author of the source that will manage them to avoid copyright. Fair use allows any user of copyrighted material done for a reasonable purpose. Mary-Jillian Murray, a current IB Global Politics teacher for six years stated "Relative to curriculum development, I think a lot of times the limitations of building curriculum are finding resources that you can use in the classroom that are engaging to students… I think that the challenge is, if I build something in my curriculum, say a lesson that builds on different areas, there is always that question in education, ‘are you allowed to do this or not… I think that my audience, we’re just using it to learn and I feel like for that purpose, that’s okay." Exclusive rights are what teachers abide by when it comes to pieces of information they can teach their students with. In that manner, exclusive rights and the fair use element of educational use allows teachers to use copyrighted information. Additionally, teachers have the ability to copy passages and upload internet sites. Generally, the negative side is one must get full consent of the holder to access certain information taken from the internet, and little teachers are aware of the problem. From the article by Digital Citizenship article "Copyright for teachers." it stated, "For example, if a school system does not provide enough textbooks for students, a teacher is not allowed to make photocopies of the entire book, or even an entire chapter, to provide a copy for a student." Therefore, teachers don’t have the authority and power to grant the remaining kids with either textbooks or chapters found on the internet unless the school itself were to give them to the teacher to provide it to them. They are provided to follow certain guidelines or criteria to access the materials. For example, teachers providing their students with course packs. These course packs are considered to be made up of collections of studies, sections and other passages that are used in schools. All the information added in course packs need to have a primary copyright remark and respects to where it originally came from, which allows the teacher to use the information for an educational purpose.

Positives/Negatives on Copyright towards Artists/Musicians

Many artists/musicians have little to no knowledge of what copyright consists of. Artists can be affected when it comes to them also sampling lyrics and give credits to the original artist that had used and produced them. Based upon my research, from Ravgiala, Joe’s article "Copyright Basics for Musicians," he mentions "Despite this importance, many artists have very little information regarding copyright, or worse, rely on knowledge about rules that have changed dramatically in the past quarter-century." For example, cover songs. Cover songs indicate the limited exclusivity granted by copyright, and what artists are known to do. The first copyright owner has an independent right to distribute the initial music tape. Any actor has the ability to sample a version of a song. Furthermore, if an artist themselves were to create their own beat, song, and lyrics, it is their feature. The positive about copyright is the production of a song that an artist first makes on his or her terms with the record label they signed to, is led by music companies. Ravgiala, Joe ’s article "Copyright Basics for Musicians," provides insight as he states "The copyright will continue to protect the composition for seventy years beyond the life of the author. If the composition is created by a corporation, the term will be ninety-five years."

Positives/Negatives on Copyright on Digital Creators

Being a digital creator is a profession that is exciting because it gets the experience of a person to go beyond the creativeness of their mind. Digital creators are creative, open-minded, and talented people that express their mind through photography and illustrations. The negative side for digital creators is if the original product is not near protection from copyright, it can be used by anyone without permission, meaning someone else has the ability to use what you have created at that persons will. This is called the public domain, the powers of others to simply use other people's products. Jim Cropp, a 10-year experienced photographer, and digital creator asserted: "I, as the writer or the designer, never owned the designs that I came up with, they were always owned by the client that was buying our time." None of the work that he does count as ownership towards him unless Jim was to buy the work he created from the company he was working for to claim back his work. Once a photographer takes a photo of something, that picture then belongs to that person. If someone were to take a photo published online from a photographer knowing it’s their work and not give credits, it’s considered copyright infringement. This affirms that we are becoming more reliant on digital communication and social media, the potential to infringe upon copyrighted works rise and rises.

Reflection

Subjectively, teachers, artists/musicians, and digital creators should not be allowed to breach the four factors of fair use. The ones who get hurt when copyright rules are broken is are the people not following the laws. Typically, you want to follow the right path, but then again, others decide to follow their own beliefs. My stance is one should be able to only use the limited amount of information that’s given, only when it comes to abiding towards fair use. When it comes to fair use, most of the people follow the rule to use copyright material (for example) either documentaries, interviews, videos such as uploading them on to the platform, YouTube, to provide content to others. Some people don’t follow the rule of fair use and don’t limit themselves to what they are given that’s best for them and don’t use the borrowed content for a specific purpose. According to Juetten, Mary. "How to Avoid Copyright Infringement," she states "Copyright laws are designed to protect the creator of original works, which are creative expressions from others using and profiting their work, without permission." I kept in mind the Justice vs. Mercy dilemma. It is either you follow a very important law or you follow the compassion of others, as it is known for copyright to be important in today’s society.

Conclusion

The law and copyright, it all fits together. Copyright is what holds and includes creations, music, documents and much more respectfully. Teachers, artists/musicians, and digital creators should not breach copyright to utilize valuable information for their own purpose necessary. It's always should be known to follow the rules of copyright, no matter if you are a teacher, artist/musician or a digital creator. Copyright is important to anyone because it is what holds their work from being taken from them. Valerie Peterson’s study, "What Is Copyright and Why Is It Important to Authors?" she states "Copyright is extremely important to authors because it constitutes the ownership of one's original work. Having ownership means you can protect your work as intellectual property and control who makes money off of it—which is you and those to whom you assign rights." From Tom Ewers article "7 Copyright Issues (And How to Deal With Them)," he states, "Who owns the copyright? If you were employed by a company when you created your work, your employer usually owns the copyright." Copyright hits between people and their profession, and it's helpful to know whence copyright can be shown in the creative environment of art, music, and education in the world.