COPYRIGHT AND PIRACY FROM MORAL AND LEGAL STANDPOINTS

Mohd areef Bin Beddu 4 ikram Information Communication technology

Report Copyright and Piracy from moral and legal standpoints.

Copyright from moral and legal standpoints

Introduction of copyright
This page covers the basic definitions regarding copyright. It has been written using the Berne Union for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Property ( Berne Convention ) as the main bibliographical source.

History of copyright
The advent of movable type in 1436 caused a proliferation of books across Europe. It is estimated that before Gutenbergs printing press the number of books in all of Europe numbered in the thousands, but that within 50 years, that number approached ten million. Such explosive growth and its accompanying economic opportunities created an immediate need for protection of the rights of both author and publisher from the earliest of literary pirates. The worlds first copyright law, the Statute of Anne, was enacted inEngland in 1710. Exercising its power under the newly adopted Constitution to secure the rights of authors and inventors, Congress passed an act almost identical to the Statute of Anne as the first American copyright law in 1790. As books continued to be easier, faster, and cheaper to produce and distribute, domestically and internationally, in Europe and North America, it became clear that enhanced protection of authors and uniform international copyright standards were required. One such movement for international uniformity led to the Berne Convention and its 1887 adoption of certain, standard, minimum levels of copyright protection and their enforcement in the member countries across Europe and elsewhere the world.

The present day is the locus of the most intense and most extensive expansion of technological progress in recorded history. Thus, if history is any lesson, this is an era in which broader, more secure copyright rights are essential to protect the rights of thinkers, writers, visionaries.

Copyright

Copyright is the set of exclusive rights granted to the author or creator of an original work, including the right to copy, distribute and adapt the work. These rights can be licensed, transferred and/or assigned. Copyright lasts for a certain time period after which the work is said to enter the public domain. Copyright applies to a wide range of works that are substantive and fixed in a medium. Some jurisdictions also recognize "moral rights" of the creator of a work, such as the right to be credited for the work.
Exclusive rights means that only the copyright holder is free to exercise the attendant right and others are prohibited using the work without the consent of copyright holder.