Ma, Zhaodong

Professor Klepper

English 113B

September 23, 2013

The Battle Between Internet and Copyright

    Since Internet was created, it became the most effective and fast way to work and study. Internet change the way that people used to live, while at the same time people give internet more features to help people share their life. You can find anything you want on the Internet in few seconds and enjoy the convenience and speedy. However, you may receive an indictment from someone or some company saying that you are not legal to read or listen some materials because they have the copyright. Thus people have to pay thousands of dollars penalty without knowing what exactly happened. There are many cases like that. People search and downloaded some thing without being stopped and they have to pay for their “fault”. Well in my opinion, anything involved copyright should not be posted on the Internet before it becomes public domain, because internet is a huge stage which is helpful to spread information quickly and at the same time it is also very hard to control. Although it is protected by copyright law, no one can guarantee that it is perfectly safe if people put their property on the internet. Moreover, the reason why people keep downloading illegally is they don’t want to pay much money for something that just can downloaded few times and cannot keep it forever. From this point, I strongly suggest that companies should decrease their price of products, thus more people are willing to pay money to buy their products.

    Internet considered as a free platform where people can share and find something important or necessary to their life. If someone post anything on the internet, people automatically think that they are willing to share with them. If not why post on internet rather than save them in the flash or other place. More over, I don’t think people share within a little group should be treated as copyright infringement even though on the internet. For example, a single mom whose name is Jammie Thomas was accused by record company because downloaded music illegally and have to pay as much as twenty two thousands dollars in 2006. The website which she downloaded music from named KASA. People sign in and uploaded music which they were willing to share, and download music that other people shared. It was like a big house where family members can share their music. If it is legal that people share in their house then why it is illegal on the internet?

    On the other hand, in order to protect people’s property it is better not to post or upload something that important. “Identity theft statistics are shocking! In the past five years, 1 in 4 Americans was a victim of identity theft making it America's fastest growing crime. Identity theft statistics indicate that this crime costs the government, businesses, and citizens of America billions of dollars each year.(white canyon)”. As modern technology developing, internet was not the safe place anymore. People trying to dig out information from others and use those information to achieve their goal. “According to the Sunday Times, the hackers used stolen login details for a Postbank teller and a call center agent to transfer about $6.7 million into multiple bank accounts that were opened across the country late last year (Hackers Steal $6.7 Million in Cyber Bank Robbery).”. Thus from the person who are trying to post something involved copyright or other important information’s view, it is better idea to keep your property away from internet.

    Well no one can deny the fact that Internet is a super huge platform that can help individual and companies achieve their commercial goal. Even though it is very hard to protect their products from being stolen, they are willing to try to sell those products online. Because Internet is so flexible and visional, it is very hard to trace the person who steel or downloaded illegally. “The RIAA reports that music sales in the United States have dropped 47 percent since Napster first debuted in 1999. The availability of free music has cost the music industry $12.5 billion in economic losses. ( How Does Illegally Downloading Music Impact the Music Industry?)”. Since Internet is so complex and huge, avoiding being hake or stolen is impossible. Benefits always go with risk.

    As I mentioned before, compare to download things illegally, people prefer to buy them with lower price. They don’t want to get risk to be sued for downloading illegally, however they also don’t want to pay twenty dollars for one song which just allowed to be downloaded few times. There are many solutions, one of them is to use modern price model. “Theoretically, households will consider the relative cost of owning versus renting when making housing tenure choices. For example, Coulson and Fisher (2002) find that the relative cost of buying versus renting is an important factor affecting household tenure choices. Sinai and Souleles (2005) find that when rent variance is high, housing demand increases. Himmelberg et al. (2005) compare the costs of house ownership in different cities in the USA. Their study reveals that the costs of ownership in cities constrained by inelastic supply are relatively higher than the costs of renting. One representative paper is that of Capone (1995), which builds a theoretical model to compare the cost of owning versus that of renting to describe how households make housing tenure choices.(Asian Economic Journal)” actually house like other online products lower price can bring much advantage of quantity and much quantity can bring much benefit. Like people compare rental cost and house price, people always consider online products price and downloading illegally, if they can get lower price product then they don’t want to download illegally with much high risk.

    However, in some extent, piracy behavior sometimes helps companies or individual gain benefit indirectly. “Finally, we could try to excuse this piracy with the argument that the piracy actually helps the copyright owner. When the Chinese “steal” Windows, that makes the Chinese dependent on Microsoft. Microsoft loses the value of the software that was taken. But it gains users who are used to life in the Microsoft world. Over time, as the nation grows more wealthy, more and more people will buy software rather than steal it(free culture).”

    In conclusion, I think copyright is very difficult to apply into Internet. Where there is someone sharing, there is someone downloading.  People always like free things. If you want to connect Internet with your products then prepare to fight a battle. However, like I mentioned above, companies may also benefit indirectly and if price become lower, it also can benefit companies and people at the same time.

Work Cited

Sarah Jacobsson Purewal, PCWorld, Hackers Steal $6.7 Million in Cyber Bank Robbery, http://www.pcworld.com/article/248340/hackers_steal_6_7_million_in_cyber_bank_robbery.html

Amy Adkins , Demand Media, How Does Illegally Downloading Music Impact the Music Industry?, http://smallbusiness.chron.com/illegally-downloading-music-impact-music-industry-27748.html

Lessig, Lawrence.
Free culture : how big media uses technology and the law to lock down culture and control creativity

Tsai, I-C. and C-W. Peng, 2011, Bubbles in the Taiwan housing market: The determinants and effects. Habitat International, 35, pp. 379–90.

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