In class on Tuesday Jason Hardin, the Manager of Access Services at Trinity University, gave a presentation about copyright laws. He defined copyright as government recognized ownership. The creator of an idea or an invention ultimately has the right to control distribution and profit from it. Jason Hardin made the distinction between copyright and plagiarism by stating that copyright infringement is a crime, while plagiarism is an “academic sin” and unethical. Copyright laws began in the 1790s, and copywriting is mentioned in the constitution directly. Our government has always wanted to support copyright laws for the people to promote innovation and incentives to allow our government to grow. The term of a copyright is the author’s life plus 70 years. This time restriction issue on copyright brought up an interesting debate about Disney copyright laws. Originally the law stated that the copyright lasted for the author’s life plus 50 years. The creator of Disney is dead, and Disney’s 50 year anniversary was approaching back in 2000. This meant that Disney copyright laws would no longer be in effect and some Disney characters would be open to the public domain. Because Disney Company was still fully thriving, they wanted to retain their copyright laws so they lobbied for an additional 20 years of copyright protection. I feel that it is important to have copyright ownership as long as a person or company still exists.
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I agree, copyright is quite helpful for people when they are still alive. It makes sure the creator of an intellectual property gets the benefits of their labor.
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