Copyright Test (True or False)

1.     In Common Law countries, copyright was instituted to protect the rights of the author.
2.     Copyrighted materials are intellectual “property”
3.     Copying copyrighted material is “stealing”
4.     Sharing your legally acquire copyrighted materials is illegal
5.     Pirating always hurts the authors of copyrighted materials
6.     Companies that own copyrighted material always help artists who created it.
7.     Copyright does not support the public domain
8.     Fair dealing is an exception to copyright law
9.     Copyright law benefits consumers
10. Without copyright no one will produce creative works

SEE ANSWERS BELOW

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V

THE FACTS

1.     In Common Law countries, copyright was instituted to protect the rights of the author.  FALSE

The title of the first copyright law The Statute of Queen Ann 1710 makes it clear: An Act for the Encouragement of Learning  and in the US 1790 : An Act to Promote the Progress of Science and the Useful Arts.

2.     2. Copyrighted materials are intellectual “property”. FALSE

Jefferson: “Inventions cannot be a subject of property.

Madison: “incentive not property of natural law is the foundational justification for copyright”  -- “It is a privileged monopoly.

Copyright restricts and limits property rights.

3.     3. Copying copyrighted material is “stealing”. FALSE

To steal you must take something AWAY from someone.  Illegally reproducing content is known as “infringement”.  A US court decision:

“Infringement is NOT theft as infringer “did not "assume physical control over the copyright nor wholly deprive its owner of its use."

“ Infringement does not easily equate with theft, conversion, or fraud.”

“The Copyright Act employs a separate term to define one who misappropriates: infringer”

 However Removing millions of texts, videos, songs and other creative works from the public domain  by extending copyright to 50 and even 70 years after the death of the author is taking something away from the public. THAT could be characterized as THEFT.

« to penalize consumers in order to give special benefit to an industry might well come under the Biblical definition of theft” - Rev. J. Frame

4.     4. Sharing your legally acquire copyrighted materials is “giving away” something. FALSE

 “Its  peculiar character, too, is that no one possesses the less, because every other possesses the whole of it. He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.”

                        Thomas Jefferson [Speaking of creative works].

5.     5. Pirating always hurts the authors of copyrighted materials. FALSE

There is a difference between “pirating” and “bootlegging”

Pirates are people who make a copy for a friend or for their own personal use. Many companies, including Microsoft have benefited enormously from pirating. Pirates established MS DOS as a world standard.

Bootleggers on the other hand reproduce works to sell. Most pirates and others would consider bootlegging to be unethical. 

6.     6. Companies that own copyrighted material always help artists who created it. FALSE

“The record companies pretend they're protecting the rights of the musicians, but you have to be deeply dumb to believe that. What they mean is that they want to protect the rights of the musicians they have under contract -- even if their "protection" hurts everybody else. What's keeping them up at night is the realization that musicians don't need record companies any more. “Orson Scott Card

90% of musicians with recording contracts with major label companies end up owing money to the company.

7.     7. Copyright does not support the public domain. FALSE

The first copyright law instituted the public domain. It did not exist before that.  It limited author’s to a copy right for specific time after which the creation, which belongs to everyone can be exploited by every one.

8.     8. Fair dealing is an exception to copyright law. FALSE

Chief Justic McLachlin: “fair dealing is an integral part of the scheme of copyright law in Canada. »

9.     9. Copyright law benefits consumers. FALSE

John Perry Barlow: "The greatest constraint on your future liberties may come not from government but from corporate legal departments laboring to protect by force what can no longer be protected by practical efficiency or general social consent."

“Strip away all the pretension, and what you really have is this: Rapacious companies that have become bloated on windfall profits and ruthless exploitation of other people's talents are now terrified that the gravy train will go away.” Orson Scott Card

10. Without copyright no one will produce creative works. FALSE

Here are booming industries with no copyright protection:Perfumes, recipes, car bodies, monuments, fashion, furniture.

The Grateful Dead makes c. $50m a year and anyone can legally copy or tape their concerts.