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... tive effect (the overall effect on the potential market of an author from unauthorized copying). These exceptions provide room for educational purposes, libraries, and some other non-profit uses. There is also the "first sale doctrine" which gives the original user (purchaser) the distribution rights to the copyrighted work (such as a CD). Section 109 of the U. S.
Code gives the specifics of the law. Some important factors of the law are the fact that only the distribution right is given to the owner, not any others such as performance. For example, a if a person purchases a video, the first sale doctrine does not cover the public showing of that video. Also, if the owner rents copyrighted material to a friend, that friend does not have the first sale rights of distribution, so they cannot copy and sell it. The United States updated its laws recently with the passage of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act on October 28, 1998.
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) strengthened some weaknesses in Title 17 of the Unites States Code regarding effects of new technology on intellectual property and copyright. The DMCA set up new regulations to deal with technology and copyright laws, much to the happiness of those with interests in the music industry and copyright defenders. (Garnett, Holland, Bergman, Federal). The DCMA (which is officially titled as "A bill to amend title 17, United States Code, to implement the World Intellectual Property Organization Copyright Treaty and Performances and Phonograms Treaty") included a few important sections to those with interests in digital music. Full text of the bill can be found here on the U.
S. Government's Thomas website. Section 103 prohibits the "circumvention of technological measures that control access to protected works; or manufacturing or trafficking in technology designed to circumvent measures that control access to, or protect rights of copyright owners in, such works. " The bill implements into U. S. law all the specifics of the Performances and Phonograms Treaty. The DCMA also establishes limited liability for: 1.
entities offering the transmission, routing, or providing of connections for digital online communications between points specified by a user of material of the user's choosing, without modification of the material; and 2. providers of online services or network access. Areas of U. S. law dealing with intellectual property and copyright in this "Digital World" were specified and strengthened with the passage of the DCMA.
Technology and Its Abilities Technology has always presented a challenge to copyright laws, but the challenge has never been as difficult as now in the "Digital Age. " Music fans have always been able to circumvent copyright laws with analog taping of vinyl records and illegal pressing of records, but the change to digital formats complicate the issue. The change in format from vinyl records and tapes to compact discs (CDs) and digital audio technology (DAT) has impacted the quality of illegal copies of music. Also, the Internet, with its millions of users and ease of sharing files is a challenge to copyright legislation. Now, with the introduction of a hot new format (MP 3 files), technology is allowing users to quickly and easily bypass copyright laws regarding music.
Analog -- > Digital Digital technology allows for a clarity and quality not found in the old style of tape copying. While a tape would eventually wear out and copies of copies would gradually lose quality, digital copying eliminates these problems. While the first illegally copied CDs were copied from vinyl records (along with the crackles and pops of a record), digital noise reduction helped the quality of the recording (Schwartz Strange). Instead of taping from records and losing quality because of surface noise, music copied and stored in digital to digital form does not reduce quality. Schwartz states in his article, "[d]initial transfers could vastly increase the bootlegger's ability to faithfully reproduce recordings by stealing from other bootleggers. " A CD can be copied onto another CD an infinite number of times without ever having a loss of quality (as long as the user avoids scratching the CD surface). The Internet The Internet poses quite a threat to copyright laws, especially in the areas of illegal music copying and distribution.
The Internet is made up of millions of sites with millions of users potentially viewing those sites daily. It is very easy for users to download information from other peoples's ites and in many cases this activity is not easily monitored. A user with a personal web page may also upload files to the server where the page is located and then allow other users to copy that file, regardless of the fact that it may be copyrighted. Heather Fleming sums up the problem very clearly by stating that "the ease and speed by which music, video and text can be copied and distributed over the information superhighway have owners of intellectual property scared" (Fleming 20).
Networks of computers also pose a problem when looking at copyright and file sharing. The Alma College campus, for example, has a network of student's personal computers. This network allows users to "share" files with the whole network, or with specific users by including a password. These shared files are stored on the individual computers, but can be accessed by any network user (as long as there is not a password). A quick check around users's hared files reveals a large amount of MP 3 files, the controversial audio format. MP 3 "For some, the MP 3 format is a dream come true.
But, for others, it's a nightmare of epic proportions" (Powell Legal). What is this controversial wonder? Well, MP 3, short for Motion Pictures Expert Group, audio layer 3, is simply a way of storing music in digital form. In 1988, the Moving Pictures Expert Group (MPEG) was formed in order to create a standard format for the compression and decompression (codec) of digital audio. The result was the standard MPEG 1, a success for the creators, but quite a problem for the music industry today.
There are two main reasons why the MP 3 format is causing problems for the music industry and copyrighted works -- the rate and quality of the compression. The MPEG codec format has a 12 - 1 compression rate, which is the primary reason for related legal problems with MP 3 s. The compression allows for large sound files to be compressed into much smaller files that will take up much less storage space and allows for quick up / downloading . A 12 - 1 compression rate just means that files which may take up 36 megabytes of space can be shrunk down to about 3 megabytes. It would be similar to a 120 page book that is compressed to only 10 pages, without any loss of quality. The key to the MP 3 format though, is that when a file is compressed, it is "maintaining perceived sound quality" (Powell Legal).
More than 15 years of research and development by the MPEG resulted in the technology that maintains quality but takes up less space by "stripping out overlapping waveforms" (Powell Legal). The relatively small file size allows users to easily store hundreds of MP 3 s on their hard drives as well as easily add to their collection by quickly downloading new files from the Internet or computers on a local network. Once on a computer, a person would need an MP 3 player to listen to the sound files. These players available for downloading off the Internet; the most popular are Winamp (for Windows) and Mac AMP (for Macintosh). Now you can play your MP 3 s, but soon most people would like to start making their own. Rippers are available for this task.
Rippers, like MusicMatch Jukebox 3. 0, are also available to download off the Internet. These rippers allow users to take individual tracks from CDs and convert them into MP 3 format, which can then be stored on their computer or posted on their personal web page. Here is where the problems begin, though. According to intellectual property laws, people who do not own the copyright to a work do not have the right to copy and distribute that work.
How this problem is being dealt with and responded to will be discussed later in the Effects on the Music Industry and Discussion sections. Adam Powell points out that today it may seem strange that the group developing the technology did not think about copyright as an issue, but we must keep in mind that at the time, the creators did not envision millions of computers with relatively huge storage capabilities all liked to one large network like the Internet (Transformation). The topic of copyrights and the music industry lead to the next section, Effects on the Music Industry. Effects on the Music Industry The music industry, as defined for this paper in the Definitions section, has definitely been shaken up by technology, especially MP 3 s.
First, I will look at the view of artists on the positives and negatives of technology, then I will examine the views of the record companies, and lastly examine the role and views of the fans and consumers of music. Artists Views Recording artists interests are understandably divided on the issue of technology. While the Internet can allow many people to listen to and become fans of an artist, it also allows for illegal distribution and copying of the artists's ong's, resulting in a substantial loss of money for the artist. Some popular artists, such as Chuck D (of Public Enemy), the Beastie Boys, They Might Be Giants, and Garbage, have released MP 3 s of some sort on the Internet for fans to download, but the artists signed to record companies are ultimately under the control of their record company. For example, the Beastie Boys, released live tracks and B sides to promote their latest album release, Hello Nasty.
But Capitol, the band's record label, persuaded the band to take down the songs. Fred Goodman reports in Rolling Stone that the reason was "[u]nail the big record companies agree on a secure delivery system - one that allows them to get paid for Internet downloads and that limits how those songs are used - they don't want to encourage unsecured music on the Internet" (Goodman 25). Steve Marker, ...
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Research essay sample on U S Law Mp 3 Format
