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The use of digital data covered by Copyright in a multimedia production reflects a lack of creativity and is against the law in all circumstances. Discuss

Multimedia and technology has become a major part of our lives. Every day we are interacting with a piece of technology and through the technology we are using multimedia, whether it be through taking pictures, listening to music or watching a movie or television program. It is just part of society and as we develop more with technology so does our use with multimedia. For the people who create the multimedia-the authors, it has become a great task for them to create multimedia in which will the public will enjoy. But along with having to create the multimedia they strive to keep the work they have created from being stolen, copied and distributed without their permission. It is hard work that costs them extra money so that they can get protection for their work and yet people are still finding ways of copying it. Don’t the authors of the multimedia that we enjoy daily deserve to get paid and acknowledge for their hard work? Unfortunately for the authors many people do not care about these things and continue to copy and distribute their work freely amongst the public and most times getting paid or it. Sometimes they will even claim the work as their own even though the work may be protected by copyright. Some people do get caught and pay the price for their actions but because we live in a world where we can do so many things behind the screens of our computers or phones the majority of these people still get away with it and continue to copy and distribute multimedia.

Copyright are the rights given to an author over a piece of work they have created. It is to protect the work from others stealing it and using it without the permission of the author. When an author creates a piece of work they ensure copyright is put onto it so as to help them get the rightfully due credit and payment for their hard work and effort. All multimedia can be protected by copyright.

When you breach the copyright law you are breaking the law. There are many ways in which you can break the copyright law. Infringement is when you copy published work without the permission of the author and then distribute and sell it. On a day to day basis plagiarism is more common. It is when we take someone else’s ideas, claiming and using them as our own and not acknowledging the author. When you acknowledge the author and where you got the piece of multimedia then it is legal and you are not breaching copyright law. In today’s society it is common for people to plagiarise someone else’s work and especially when we available to so many ways in which we could get it from. People do not realise that the author creates the multimedia for our enjoyment as long as we acknowledge that they created it and spent their time and money on it. As long as we are enjoying it legally then they are fine with it.

As I mentioned in the beginning technology is becoming more and more advanced each year and is constantly being developed and advanced. Websites are constantly changing how we view multimedia. YouTube breaches many copyright laws and the videos on the website are constantly being taken down and the audio in some videos has been striped because of copyright. This happens because the creator of the video has not asked the author of the music if they can use the music on their video. People who upload videos of live performances without the permission of the performers are breaching copyright law but because of technology such as digital cameras and phones now all have video recordes in them and preventing people from recording these preformances is difficult. What makes this even more difficult is that you can now upload videos live from a preformance so that you now don’t have to wait a couple of hours to see a preformance that you couldn’t afford to go to but could afford to watch and download via the internet. Artists lose money this way because people will not want to pay to see a show when they can watch it from the comfort of their own home and then download it and watch it over and over again. Performers lose money that they should be getting for their work and effort. Technology is always being modified and because if this some laws in the Copyright Law do no longer fit in and this will leave the Copyright Laws trying and failing to be edited and fixed so that the laws apply and keep up with the always advancing technology.

As I said earlier copyright covers all types of multimedia and this includes software. Software is obtained by buying it from an electronics store or company. You must pay to use it. But people do not really like paying for something that they could get for free and like how all other multimedia is being copied and distributed software is exactly the same. People copy, distribute and charge others so as to get the software without having to pay as much for it as you would if you had brought it from legally. Software developers work hard on their products but because people pirate the software the developers do not make as much profit from their products because people get it cheaper or for free. This results in developers not being able to improve their programs and because they are gradually losing more money they do not have enough funding to continue bettering and producing their software. This leaves us with versions of software that could have been better but couldn’t because the software developers didn’t have the money to produce the software and they could also be offended that their hard work was being copied and stolen from them. Software piracy impacts greatly on the economy on a national and global scale. A study done by Business Software Association of Australia suggests that 40% of all software globally is pirated and that illegal copies of software cost the Australian Computer Industry around $200 million a year. Software that is stolen or pirated is often faulty and causes damage to the computer system. They can have viruses and can be corrupt, this causes the hard drive of the computer to malfunction and it costs the consumer to get it fixed or replaced. This is a result from faulty software that has been pirated. Other problems are that pirated software has lead to an increase in cyber crimes such as identity theft, hacking into people’s accounts and loss or stolen information. The consequences for people who have been found in the possession or distributing illegal copies of software is a fine of up to 300 000 or jail for 15 years.

Shareware is software that is available free of charge and many people prefer shareware over a commercial package. Shareware has a trial or test period and when the testing period is over the consumer is allowed to decided whether they wish to continue using the software or not, if they do then a small fee is required for them to continue using the software. Shareware is cheaper and more convenient than commercial packages. People are able to test the shareware from the comfort of their homes and are able to decide whether the software fits the consumers purposes rather than having to go out and spend money on the commercial package and finding out that it does not fit the purpose that the consumer wanted it to. Commercial packages also cost a lot more than shareware does because one they include so many extra features that the consumer does not want or need, two because shareware is made by smaller companies it does not have to make a large profit out of it and does need o support as many staff members than that of a large company and three shareware is easier and costs least to distribute and is not advertised. Shareware is less pirated than commercial software as shareware is mostly free and costs a lot less than commercial packages.

I do not believe that it is right for people to copy others work without the permission of the author. People work hard to create multimedia and spend their time, money and creative intuition to design and develop music, shows, movies, artwork, text and software that will help educate and entertain us. It is wrong of people to copy, claim, distribute (with or without profits). In some ways it does prove that the person copying does have a lack of imagination although they cannot help that, it means that they have to resort to copying the work and ideas of others. There lack of imagination and creativity shows that they also lack in originality in some ways. This also shows that the person is not bothered and has not really put enough thought, imagination and creativity into what they are trying to create. They show a lack of disregard for peoples work, rights and also for the Copyright Act. There are some ways in which people will take previously made multimedia and combine it. These are called mash ups. I do not believe that these show a lack of creativity as it takes creativity to know what piece of multimedia will work with another.

In conclusion though I believe that digital data covered by copyright in a multimedia production reflects a lack of creativity. This is changed only when people ask for permission of the author or creator and it is granted otherwise it is against the law in all circumstances. Everyone who has the access to the internet and even those who don’t should be educated in copyright and they should know the consequences of their actions if they breach copyright law.