Page 1: Copyright
Unit 2, Lab 5, Page 1
On this page, you will discuss and reflect on your own opinions about copying other people’s creative work.
Do a show-of-hands survey of the class:
Who has music on their phone or computer that they didn’t pay for (or download from a legitimate free distributor)?
Who has movies on their phone or computer that they didn’t get legally?
Who has games on their phone or computer that they didn’t get legally?
Now a different kind of question:
Who thinks it’s okay to steal music?
Who thinks it’s okay to steal movies?
Who thinks it’s okay to steal games?
If your class is like most classes, the first set of questions got very different responses from the second set. Discuss in small groups: Is it “stealing” to download artistic works without permission? Why or why not?
Discuss in small groups: Suppose anyone were allowed to download any music, movies, etc., they want. How could the artists (musicians, writers, producers, actors, and so on) support themselves?
The copyright law makes it illegal for anyone to make copies of someone else’s work (a book, a painting, a song, etc.) without the permission of the author. There are exceptions, as you’ll learn later in this lab.
Write out your opinion on some of these copyright issues. How well does your own behavior match what you think society should do?
Copyright violation is very different from plagiarism, which means pretending that you wrote someone else’s work. If you copy someone’s work without permission, even if you acknowledge it’s theirs, you may still be violating their copyright. On the other hand, if you copy something that isn’t protected by copyright, perhaps because it was written a long time ago, and pretend it’s yours, that’s plagiarism. Violating someone’s copyright is illegal; plagiarism isn’t illegal but it’s unethical and can get you in a lot of trouble in an academic setting. But while copyright is complicated, it’s easy to avoid plagiarism: Just give credit to whoever wrote the stuff you want to copy. (But you still might be violating their copyright if you aren’t covered by one of the exceptions we’ll discuss later.)