So I realize that it has been almost 7 months since I wrote anything original. February 13th of the year 2006 is the last time I wrote about my views. Since then I have added entries that were almost entirely "copied and pasted" from other websites. So speaking of such blatant piracy I will share a short story.
I have been using a website called YouTube that you may be familiar with. It is a site dedicated to allowing your average users the chance to have their own videos hosted on the internet. The registration is free, and once your account is open you may begin to upload videos from your computer. The terms and conditions clearly state that you are not allowed to upload copyrighted material without permission from the owner.
The great thing about this website is that you can search through their extensive library. When you upload your videos you are given a chance to choose whether the video is public or private. If your video is worth beans, you will select public. If it's your grandmother's 9th wedding reception you may want to click private for your own sake. In searching through these videos it became very clear that there are extensive copyright infringements. Many people will submit the copyrighted videos as a way to easily share them with friends online. I have done this same thing.
The curious thing to me is that I tried to upload a video I received via e-mail that was a public service announcement. It featured a group of people smoking cigarettes on a balcony just outside a non-smoking office. I won't spoil the ending for you, you can always search YouTube for "smoking balcony" and see it for yourself. I wanted to upload it so that I could use the HTML code to post the video on some friends' websites. Unfortunately after it loaded, the screen displayed that the video status was: "Rejected (terms of use violation)"
So obviously they caught my little scheme to upload this copyrighted material. Yet, when I made the search I mentioned above, a funny thing was revealed. It had been uploaded bynot one, not two but seven users to be viewed by the public. That was just the first page. So whatever could this mean?
As usual, the laws in this and every other free country are mostly a joke. Sure they exist and sometimes they are even enforced. But the arbitrary ways that people are arrested and forced to face the consequences truly bothers me. If the rule is, "Do what you can get away with," why bother having laws at all? Which category do you fit in?
Somebody can get away with anything some of the time
Anybody can get away with anything some of the time
Anybody can get away with something all of the time
et cetera, et cetera...
1 comment:
I even wrote to some YouTube members that had copywritten material posted and asked them what kind of permission they got. No response yet.
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