elearnspace

I’ve paid for all of the music on my laptop. And images (through istockphoto). I don’t use P2P services for sharing music or movies – as I type, I’m downloading Important Things with Demetri Martin off iTunes. I don’t mind paying for content if I find value in it. So it’s easy to think that some of the developments around intellectual property and copyright aren’t relevant to me. Wrong. Very, very wrong. I make certain choices about how I acquire and use content…others make different choices. Copyright holders in various countries of the world are starting to pursue very stringent laws (such as three strikes) to promote what many would consider to be a pre-digital era view of content ownership. That’s an important discussion and it impacts everyone who uses a computer/mobile phone. But that’s not my real concern at this stage. My biggest concern is that copyright is beginning to take the highest place in legal hierarchy, suberting personal freedoms. The concern is well-expressed in this manifesto: “Copyright should not be placed above citizens’ fundamental rights to privacy, security, presumption of innocence, effective judicial protection and freedom of expression”