Shall we protect authors’ right on internet? Shall we pay for it? by Milota Sidorova

I always considered unfair if some commercial literally stole the part of Mozart, Rachmaninov or Tschaikovski and made a huge success using it. Personally I think it’s a business cowardice to steal, use and make profit on something such eternal as is the music - to use it to sell a cell phone or a car or an antiseptic. The family has a right to operate with the art pieces during 70 years and then all these rights come under the state law. The same situation happens with paintings – if they are not already sold or owned. The same situation happens with other patents. Living a life so influenced by internet, one should think of the authors’ rights. A lot o! f information is provided for free and although many businessmen cry for yields that are nearly gone, it is one of the foundations of the internet - to provide information for free. The other aspect is, many people who provide information for free gain advertisements, attention or another kind of a benefit. So it’s not only one sided service. The other major point – that it is very hard to assure the objectivity and truth of the information here. Although Wikipedia may be considered as the biggest and the most popular online encyclopedia, it is not considered the relevant source among academics. Some products here are free to download – the great question lies before everyone trying to make a living this way. It’s true the most of the products offered via network are cheaper – starting with music songs ending with electronic goods. Attractive price is sometimes a good reason for people to download and pay. Sometimes, things go even further. Le! t’s mention the music band Radiohead that offered its la! st album Rainbows for voluntary contribution. Some people paid, but the most did not. The advertising effect was huge – Radiohead knew most of its income is backed by living concerts. Still the question of the rights is one of the biggest problems of current times.

related story (sgx16100): http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20091208/cm_csm/yshughart;_ylt=A...

by Milota Sidorova for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

PocketNews is a new real-time news broadcaster delivering the latest and hottest news right to your pocket ! With global clients who wa! nt to be kept up to date, PocketNews is everyone's way of keeping in touch with the World.