5.+My+Report

= = REPORT

**The Question: 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.**

Digital data is very common in our world today and there are many sites on the internet that enable us to download things illegally. This is a major issue for many companies and industries (such as the IT industry) in our world today. So to answer this question, does the use of digital data covered by copyright in a multimedia production reflect a lack of creativity and is it really against the law in all circumstances?

Firstly, what is copyright? Copyright is designed to protect or prevent the original expression of ideas from being copied by another individual. It is not the ideas themselves  (Commonwealth of Australia, 2010) . Copyright protects an individual's original works such as art and literature, music, films, sound recording, broadcasts and computer programs from being copied. It is a legal protection and is provided under the Copyright Act 1968. It is also free and automatic as soon as information has been written down or recorded  (Copyright Basics, 1994-2010). However, it does not protect names, titles and slogans, ideas or concepts and basic facts such as names and addresses (The University of Sydney, 2002-2010).

Copyright is also important because it gives the creators authority over their creative works  (Copyright) , so they can decide who uses their work, how it is used and if a fee will be charged to whoever wants to use it. Therefore this gives the creators an ability to earn a living. Moreover, the use of copyright works without permission is called copyright piracy or theft. Software piracy is very common in today’s world and it is recommended for software authors to be protected by copyright. This is because if someone uses their ideas in creating the software, without asking the owner's permission, they will obviously lose money. And if someone does copy the owners work, they will receive serious consequences such as facing a civil action or even criminal penalties (IPeuropAware) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: normal;">. In 2005, software piracy hit $545 million in the year <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: normal;">(McBride, 2005) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: normal;">, which is obviously a disgrace to Australia. According to the IPR-Helpdesk, the result of software piracy is very crucial <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: normal;">(IPeuropAware)  <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: normal;">. This can also lead to the owner being broke, as they obviously gain a lot of money from creating the software.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: normal;">The components of multimedia protected by copyright are images, text, music and film. Below are examples of each component:

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: normal;">· Images: paintings, photographs, maps, graphics, cartoons, charts, diagrams and illustrations. · Text: novels, textbooks, poems, song lyrics, newspaper articles, computer software, computer games and directories. · Music: melodies, song music, advertising jingles, film scores and podcasts. · Film: feature films, short films, documentaries, television programs, interactive games, television advertisements, animation and music videos. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: normal;">The media may be covered by copyright laws for a number of reasons. These include

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: normal;">· The illustrator of the image having skills to create unique images, · Time-consumed creating and publishing depending on the type media · People changing music slightly, claiming it is theirs · The need for the product to be sold in the markets. · The owner also having to pay for the program or software. Examples include Adobe Photoshop for creating images, Pinnacle Studio for creating videos and Macromedia Flash for creating animation. More importantly without us paying the artist, actor, author or illustrator, they will not continue to publish their works as they are not earning the money they need. A popular example is the use of iTunes. If we don’t pay for the songs and download it illegally from a different site, the artist would be in a stage of not producing anymore songs, as they don’t earn enough money. I personally think this is totally unfair for the artist because we are stealing their song, without their permission and thus it is against the law.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: normal;">In addition people can be sued, jailed or charged by the police and ordered to pay a fine, for committing a crime under Australia’s Copyright Act, unless there is an exception <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: normal;"> (Australian Copyright Council, 1994-2010) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: normal;">. They can either authorise infringement, record or film a live performance without the performers' permission and watching it later, or import certain types of items containing copyright material, such as feature films on DVD, or copying CD’s onto an iPod. My opinion is that the law is very strict and we can sometimes be tempted to download or copy things illegally, but we have to understand the consequences before we actually do anything. In other words we need to think before we act so we do not make a mistake accidently and realise that it is too late.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: normal;">Creativity is the process of developing new (original), unusual, imaginative or unique ideas (National Association for Gifted Children, 2008). You can be creative in many ways in using digital data by: · Using quotes from significant people or creating a wordle to use in your presentation · Using a creative artwork or image to create a better and informative project. · Using an informative video in a report to express your ideas better. · Creating a mashup, mixing different songs together and putting it into one like a remix.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: normal;">An example of an amazing and creative project is a parody designed by Professor Eric Faden of Bucknell University. It is called “A Fair(y) Use Tale”. It is a humorous, yet informative video on copyright principles. This creative video is delivered through the words of famous Disney characters.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: normal;">Therefore, it has been argued that 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.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: normal;">The negatives of this statement, is that it can be beneficial in a way that it will save time and effort, then again it will definitely be unfair to the owner/author. Also it will be free according to the person wanting to copy, as they don’t have to pay for the expensive or costly programs and software.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: normal;">However it is essential that when you want to copy any form of multimedia, firstly you must check if there are any terms and conditions (The University of Adelaide, 2010). Secondly you must source the work, by putting a bibliography (citation), so people know that you haven’t copyrighted but rather recognised that it is not your own. Furthermore, you must ask permission from the owner to use their work. These processes might seem difficult, but it is the correct and approved way by the copyright law.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: normal;">In conclusion, 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 as it is considered illegal and committing a crime under Australia’s Copyright Act. Therefore if copyright laws did not exist, software piracy would be acceptable and original expression of work or ideas would not be protected. It is very important for all of us to understand the meaning of copyright and that we need to be creative to design our own work.