Fair Use and the Law

Posted on February 20, 2013 by Chito2500

There are many multimedia users who have many great ideas to present to the public. However, some of these users may have the same idea and it is a race to the finish to see whose idea becomes an original thought. When a user publish an idea anywhere on the media, he/she will use the power of the law to protect, or copyright, their idea to prevent it from being used for all the wrong reasons. The only time an original idea can be used legally by users is for education. Fair use, according to the law, is the legal use of any information already published by the original user to enhance the knowledge of any student user without claiming that information as one’s own work. Fair use is still debatable as the original users can challenge anyone who they believe is using their information for unlawful purposes. Because there are so many users at one time, the law strictly enforces the Fair Use policy and works around the clock to ensure that originality is preserved. Although the policy is great, it can be abused to an extent. As of today, I still do not understand why people steal each others’ information. Is it that they themselves cannot create an idea that did not exist yet? Or is it that in their mind, they believe that they can get away with it to achieve success in their life? For now, I do not know.

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3 Responses to Fair Use and the Law

  1. Madi says:
    February 26, 2013 at 10:44 am

    I agree with Chito. Why would anyone want to use someone else’s work? To simply reuse someone else’s work is taking the easy way out in my eyes. There’s much more satisfaction in producing your own original work and seeing it thrive, then to see a collage created of other peoples work thrive. Inversely, I would be happier with my own work failing instead of a collection of other works. At least I can say i put forth my best effort.

  2. erica gordillo says:
    February 26, 2013 at 2:31 pm

    In response to your question on why people steal each others’ information, I’d say people are most likely not aware that what they’re doing in illegal. I think most people understand that stealing someone’s work in writing form is illegal, such as books, articles, journals, etc. This understanding probably comes from what we were taught in school about plagiarism and its consequences. However, we are not very familiar with the consequences of taking digital media and inputting a soundtrack, per say, on a presentation or skit we may do.
    I’ve also noticed many Youtube videos have artist’s songs in their videos and they simply state “I do not own any of the music in this video” or they don’t even mention the artist and song. Since no consequence seems to happen when using someone else’s music, people don’t think much about wrongfully taking digital media and using it for their own purpose.

  3. Tojo says:
    March 14, 2013 at 12:59 pm

    I agree to the fact that people should not steal or reuse another person’s work. To me, it is just a proof that the person is lacking of creativity. Although, answering to the question that you asked earlier, you have to admit to the fact that not everyone can sing or draw or dance or even write like the artist that you took the work from. And like you said, that’s what “Fair use” is for. The only issue here is that most people just do not know how to use the “Fair use” properly. That is why I think Copyright law is making a big deal out of it. It is not that they steal, it is just that they do not know. However, it is fair to say that some people do not care as well.

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