ShmoopTube

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We speak student!

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Media Literacy

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Copyright Law

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a la Shmoop

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So why do we have these laws?

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I mean, when I think about them...

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If we didn't have the laws,

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there'd be no incentive for people to create

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proprietary, cool ideas.

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How do copyright laws protect intellectual property?

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So copyright is the word that we usually throw around.

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It's actually one portion of intellectual property.

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So intellectual property is this broad idea

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that you own the exclusive rights to an idea.

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And then the copyright is one of those rights.

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It is the right to copy.

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There are a lot of other rights that go along with intellectual property.

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Copyright is the one where it says,

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"You own this idea. You can do literally whatever you want with it.

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You can copy it, you can redistribute it, et cetera."

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If someone else says, "Hey, I wanna post

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this on my site,"

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they have to get your permission,

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because they do not have the right to copy it.

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So they have to get your permission

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and pay for it.

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Why are copyright laws controversial?

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The issue you're bringing up is the divide between

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what people like to call "copyrighters" and "copylefters."

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So the copyrighters are --

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And that's not copy "write," that's copy "right."

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The copyrighters are the folks who think

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that we should be very strict with copyright laws.

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That if someone comes up with an idea,

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that if someone else copies it, they should be severely punished.

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Which would basically mean

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anyone who ever posted anything on YouTube would be in jail.

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So that's the one extreme.

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The other extreme are the copylefters,

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who are the folks who play fast and loose with these rules.

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And they say, "Oh, what's the harm?

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Ideas are ideas. We're trying to generate new

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and great things. How can we do that if there's

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super strict laws?

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So if you wanna take Star Wars and make something out of it, great.

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Put it on the Internet. That's great."

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[ electric beeping ]

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The big divide is whether or not we should be able to just

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take everything we want and

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live in harmony

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or if we should be respecting these laws

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to the fullest.

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Copyright law is in the Constitution.

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Yeah, how so? Which amendment was that?

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That's a great question. Editors, put that up on the screen.

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[ whoop ]

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How do copyright laws protect intellectual property?

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Why are copyright laws controversial?

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