Copyright

Copyright is a concept that, on a surface level, doesn’t seem all that difficult to deal with. Someone creates something and then they own it. Simple, right?

Not so much, unfortunately.

The primary issues with copyright stem from when one person tries to use another’s creations or ideas in his or her own work. It’s fairly easy to see that many of the best creative works come from building upon or using in some way someone else’s ideas. Therefore, if you have any respect for artistic freedom anyway, it’s fairly easy to agree that the use of other’s creations should be allowed, at least to some extent.

The problem comes from trying to define that extent. Essentially, creating laws regarding content use is trying to regulate creativity, which is obviously kind of difficult as every case will be somewhat different. This is not to say that I think regulating copyright is entirely bad, as it is certainly possible to rip off another work too heavily and there needs to be some control for that.

My personal stance on copyright laws is that they need to be fairly lax. Creativity needs to have freedom in order to create the best artistic product. While some control is needed, the law shouldn’t get in the way of artistic creation. Art in this work faces enough problems as it is. Unfortunately, with the huge influence large money-hungry corporations have on politics these days, I see money becoming the main factor in deciding copyright issues, not art, and this worries me because I think it has serious implications for what will be possible for future creators in this country.