Yauheniya Chuyashova Hybrid Assignment 03
In chapter 5 “The Double Anchor” we talk about digital media and copyright and how they are related. Copyright is a right made by the law that allows the maker of the unique work have an exclusive rights for sharing and using. This right usually has a limited time. “Copyright, from day one, was designed to be both, an impediment and an incentive, a mechanism of enclosure and catalyst of sorts, a structure to stimulate the production of literary goods by rewarding writers and publishers for their labor”.
In our digital time people have their own vision of this situations. Many of them think that stuff like movies, music and etc. have to be free. For example, in Taylor’s book we talk about the documentary “Examined Life” which after the premiere was found online right away. Person who made this movie needs copyright because he spent a lot of money, energy and time to make that movie. Of course in return he wanted to have some profit. At the end he doesn’t get any of it or just a little bit because his work was sharing online for free. After something got posted in the Internet, you can’t control it anymore. At the same time it doesn’t belong to that person and it become free: “Free can mean something that no one can own, that belongs to all”. The information goes from one computer to the Internet, than from network into another computer and this process keeps repeating and people don’t stop sharing information. “When creative work is available without limit, freely accessible, it tends also to become free of charge. This tendency leads us straight to what” long been called the “paradox of value”, or the diamond-water paradox. Diamonds are valuable for being scarce, but water, which we need to live, is comparatively worthless”.
