Copyright Violation
A) A paper on copyright violation
1. Give an outline of the attitudes to copyright violation and illegal downloading as presented in texts 1 and 3.
In 2009, the three founders of The Pirate Bay (TPB) were convicted of contributory copyright infringement. They were sentenced between four months and one year in prison. In 2006, a Swedish prosecutor said, “TPB wasn’t guilty of “main” crimes – at best it aids and abets.” Therefore, according to Peter Sunde, this new conviction, which he contributes to corrupt judges, makes no sense. Sunde argues that just like his old Amiga computer died when better technology came along, so should the entertainment industry embrace and accept this evolution in technology. He thinks that the problem lies in “allowing this dying industry to dictate the terms of our democracy” when they forbid this evolution.
On the contrary, Wendy Cope, an acclaimed English poet is obsessed with copyright. She worries that because her poems are available on the internet for free, it might affect the sales of her books. Cope points out that she, as an artist, is dependent on the copyright law, since selling her poems is her only way of income. In her poem “The Law of Copyright” she writes, “This is the law; the creator has rights that you can’t overlook./ It isn’t OK to make copies – you have to fork out for the book.” Moreover, she states that copyright infringement is, in fact, an act of robbery.
2. Compare the writing styles, e.g. language and tone, in texts 2 and 3. Illustrate your answer with examples from the texts.
The biggest difference between “You like my poems? So pay for them” and the four comments on “The Pirate Bay’s Peter Sunde: It’s Evolution, Stupid” is that the first one is an article and the others are comments on the internet. The comments are therefore more informal than Cope’s article. The sentences are long in the four comments while they are a bit shorter in the article. This may be because the commentators are not
1. Give an outline of the attitudes to copyright violation and illegal downloading as presented in texts 1 and 3.
In 2009, the three founders of The Pirate Bay (TPB) were convicted of contributory copyright infringement. They were sentenced between four months and one year in prison. In 2006, a Swedish prosecutor said, “TPB wasn’t guilty of “main” crimes – at best it aids and abets.” Therefore, according to Peter Sunde, this new conviction, which he contributes to corrupt judges, makes no sense. Sunde argues that just like his old Amiga computer died when better technology came along, so should the entertainment industry embrace and accept this evolution in technology. He thinks that the problem lies in “allowing this dying industry to dictate the terms of our democracy” when they forbid this evolution.
On the contrary, Wendy Cope, an acclaimed English poet is obsessed with copyright. She worries that because her poems are available on the internet for free, it might affect the sales of her books. Cope points out that she, as an artist, is dependent on the copyright law, since selling her poems is her only way of income. In her poem “The Law of Copyright” she writes, “This is the law; the creator has rights that you can’t overlook./ It isn’t OK to make copies – you have to fork out for the book.” Moreover, she states that copyright infringement is, in fact, an act of robbery.
2. Compare the writing styles, e.g. language and tone, in texts 2 and 3. Illustrate your answer with examples from the texts.
The biggest difference between “You like my poems? So pay for them” and the four comments on “The Pirate Bay’s Peter Sunde: It’s Evolution, Stupid” is that the first one is an article and the others are comments on the internet. The comments are therefore more informal than Cope’s article. The sentences are long in the four comments while they are a bit shorter in the article. This may be because the commentators are not