My Opinions on Copyright!

After watching the TED talk about copyright I was informed of so many different perspectives and viewpoints in terms of Copyright. And the narrator, Larry Lessig, did an excellent job at highlighting these two perspectives while staying true to what he believes. One of the quotes by him in particular that I really liked was, “We live life against the law”. This quote really stuck with me because it was something I never once realized til now. And after taking some time to think about it, I found a lot of truth to it.

Overall however, I would say I agree with Lessig but to an extent. There were plenty of things in his presentation that I heard and was shaking my head “Yes” to. A lot of people don’t realize how most of what we watch, do, listen to, play, and create came from something that has already been done before. And that doesn’t mean that people are trying to copy or plagiarize other works. When people see something or someone they are inspired by they first become or do that thing and then improve on it. Society continues to move forward because of the fact that as generations move on people will continue to take things that already exists and make them better. That’s why that quote stood out to me so much. Because yes, people live by laws, but copyright should not be one of those. The ability to express yourself creatively under the influence of someone else shouldn’t be a law people have to live by. Despite all of this however, I still think copyright laws do have a place in society. The sad reality is that there are many people who commit acts of plagiarism. People who see ideas from others, will steal them and profit.

While I do feel like copyright laws do have a good purpose to serve, there is definitely a point to where it can go overboard and be taken out of proportion. Like the story of the planes that Lessig spoke about.