Extended Blog Piece - Blockade of Global Progression.

We as human beings are predisposed to copying, it is how we learn. From infancy until adulthood, it is our disposition to learn by example. George Bernard Shaw, a novelist and a playwright said "Imitation is not just the sincerest form of Flattery - It's the sincerest form of learning.". An infant develops through the imitation of their parents, they are natural sponges of information, absorb through imitation of those around them. Yet, if this is the case, why is copying condemned so? Inherently, it is because people love to copy, but hate to be copied.

Thomas Edison, father of inventions and innovation is a prime example of this love / hate relationship of copying. It is well known that Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, well, he didn't. He only innovated them in a way that made the commercially viable. The idea and bulk of the work actually belongs to British Inventors Fredrick DeMoleyns, and Humphrey Davy who began working on the light bulb a good 70 years before Edison. However, I am not discrediting Thomas Edison's work, he took the unfinished product of the light bulb and innovated it into something technologically revolutionary. But at the same time, Edison was notorious for bringing up patents on his works blocking anyone from further progression of his ideas. Ironic isn't it.

Now we have to bring this predicament of copying into the modern day and on a global scale. Things have gotten a bit out of hand since Edison. Copy Right law has run rampant and has caused a rift in the progressive cycle. Now we have Samsung and Apple battling it out in court rooms about who did what first. We have people being sued thousands of dollars because they downloaded a CD. Those who refused to adhere to this ban on copying are now referred to as pirates. But instead of wielding swords and a flintlock pistols, they wield keyboards and 5 terabyte hard drives.

The Music industry, the legal iron giants of copyright fight against one thing. Pirates. Pirates who think paying $20 per album of 12 songs is ridiculous, choose to share, download copied material for free. As a majority of those anti-piracy laws come from America and are applicable to United States territory. The Internet Pirating websites are set up in countries such as Sweden where their practices are not infringing upon the law. Pirate Bay, the most notable of the piracy websites are aware of their advantage in Sweden and do not take heed of any misguided legal notices that production companies send their way. you can read their responses to these emails at http://thepiratebay.se/legal/ .

Pirates are portrayed as evil, swash-buckling thieves of the internet. Driven to steal the money from artists for their own benefits. There is no way that piracy could be justified is there? In a study conducted Go-Globe.com, Web Technologies, it was stated that 70% of those surveyed found nothing wrong with online piracy, and out of the most pirated material on the web was pornography.  If the production industries keep functioning as they do. While there is the introduction of social media, MP3. The purchasing of a physical CD has become redundant, but we still expected to pay irrational prices for media. Luckily, there are some pioneers in the music industry that will make the leap forward into a more productive consumer cycle. such as Spottify, which is free with a premium service, allows you to listen to a huge range of music for free, whilst still providing the artists with their cut.

"You're not losing sales by getting stuff out there. When I do a big talk now on these kinds of subjects and people ask "What about the sales you are losing by having stuff floating out there?" I started asking the audience to raise their hands for one question -- Do you have a favourite author? And they say yes and I say good. What I want is for everybody who discovered their favourite author by being lent a book put up your hand. Then anybody who discovered their favourite author by walking into a book story and buying a book. And it's probably about 5-10%, if that, of the people who discovered their favourite author who is the person they buy everything of and they buy the hardbacks. And they treasure the fact they've got this author. Very few of them bought the book. They were lent it. They were given it. They did not pay for it. That's how they found their favourite author. And that's really all this is; it's people lending books.".

There is something to be said when the artists who are supposedly being "stolen" from have no qualms with people copying their music, and in some cases support it. When Industry is too focused on who copied what, we lose sight of what is important to begin with. Progression, which is the main goal of any civilization, and what our future steps are towards globalization..

Ideas have always been a global resource. As Ideas are the by-product of knowledge and circumstance. It has been shown that people have had the same idea at the same time, in different locations in history. Two separate patents were filed for the Telephone on the same day. Who is to say who owns an idea.

Global progression is the true aim. We copy to learn, learn to innovate, innovate to progress.  Copying is how we learn, we copy to gain understanding, a knowledge which we adapt to create new ideas. AS we put up gates around our ideas and technologies, we as a race are unable to progress . This is, in essence why the copyright law are harmful.

Piracy and Copyright are two opposing forces, both are seen just as virtuous as each other. Copyright being the law of the land and the fair treatments of consumers. and Piracy going for the Robin Hood approach of taking from the rich and bloated producers and providing media to the poor and downtrodden of the internet. When peoples lust for wealth gets in the way of global progression of ideas, and technological power houses squabble in the court rooms instead of innovating for the benefit of their customers or even their competition. It is then when I consider Copy Right and Copyright wrong.

References:

Childs, Brian. "Neil Gaiman On Internet Piracy: "It's People Lending Books"" Comics Alliance. N.p., 10 Feb. 2011. Web. 04 Oct. 2012. <http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/02/10/neil-gaiman-piracy-lending-books/>.

Ferguson, Kirby. "All Is a Remix." All Is Remix. All Is a Remix, 2011. Web. 04 Oct. 2012. <http://www.allremix.ru/watch-the-series/>.

"George Bernard Shaw." Goodreads. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Oct. 2012. <http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5217.George_Bernard_Shaw>.

"Online Piracy in Numbers - Facts and Statistics [Infographic]." Online Piracy in Numbers - Facts and Statistics [Infographic]. Go Gulf, 1 Nov. 2011. Web. 04 Oct. 2012. <http://www.go-gulf.com/blog/online-piracy>.

"The Pirate Bay - The Galaxy's Most Resilient Bittorrent Site." The Pirate Bay - The Galaxy's Most Resilient Bittorrent Site. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Oct. 2012. <http://thepiratebay.se/legal/>.

"Uniform Motion — Release Day Economics." Uniform Motion — Release Day Economics. Uniform Motion, n.d. Web. 04 Oct. 2012. <http://uniformmotion.tumblr.com/post/9659997039/release-day-economics>.