The following is a YouTube video pertaining to Canada's copyright laws. The speakers in the video are published authors (as I hope to be one day) and are expressing their concerns about the effect that Bill C-32 will have on them personally, and as a collective group of individuals.
While I wholeheartedly feel that teachers need to be able to have access to material, and that we should not be limited in the number of copies we make, I am also of the opinion that writers need to be recognized for their work. Words have changed the world, have inspired people, and are an important resource for education. Students and teachers alike need access to these materials - these books, magazines, poems, short stories - so that the minds of the future may be nourished.
But the creators need the credit.
The distribution of literature without credit is much the same as downloading music for free, though without the benefits of exposure. A lot of work, effort, time (and believe it or not, money) is put into the writing and publication of a book. If authors are not given due recognition for their labour, they will have little motivation to continue writing so that their work can, essentially, be stolen.
Copyright is for the producer as much as the consumer, but in our consumer-market mentality, I think this is a fact often forgotten.
Musicians, artists, film-makers and photographers have been given recognition with this bill, why haven't writers?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qrcNksj5DE
Emily thank you for your thoughful and well written piece in regards to copyright in Education and the complexity of this issue. This is an excellent topic for debate and the ideas presented in your chosen You Tube clip further highlight the complexity of digital media and works that are created. Google's mission of digitizing all books has shed a great deal of exposure and debate on this topic.
ReplyDeleteAlong the same vien, many writers earn a very good living on writing of blogs, as high traffic blogs can earn a great deal of earnings from advertisements on their blog sites. Newspapers are struggling in this new landscape also and are losing money. Are authors of today (and tomorrow) going to be compensated differently for their creative contributions?
Carmen