Copyright Violation and Illegal Downloading (Opgave A)

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Copyright Violation and Illegal Downloading

Copyright violation and illegal downloading is today a very known and discussed question whether it’s legal or not. The Internet has developed to one big sharing-portal, which is available for everybody. The musicians and writers are fighting an impossible battle against the whole world. But what arguments does the non-musicians have, and are they qualified for being accepted by the musicians?

Give an outline of the attitudes to copyright violation and illegal downloading as presented in texts 1 and 3

In text 1, “It’s Evolution, Stupid” Peter Sunde, the co-founder of The Pirate Bay, explains his dissatisfaction with the current legislation about copyright protection, which he sees as old-fashion. He has been pleading guilty, by mistake, for giving people an opportunity to download and upload illegal music and videos over the Internet. He claims, that the Internet is being controlled by a corrupt industry, which has to stop.[1]

In text 3, “You like my poems? So pay for them”, Wendy Cope represents the opposite opinion about violation and illegal downloading. Wendy is a writer and therefore she suffers from a too loose maintenance of the copyright law. Wendy often feels stung by people who reprint her poems and upload them on the Internet, without her permission. People who have ignorance to the copyright law, doesn’t realize, that they harm the industry, even though it’s meant in a good manner.

Compare the writing styles, e.g. language and tone, in texts 2 and 3. Illustrate your answer with examples from the texts

Because the texts applies to two widely different audiences and have two different purposes, the language and tone are therefore fairly different. The comments on Peter Sunde’s article all have in common, that they have a very informal tone and contains a lot of loose sentences with denotative words, which it also turns out to have in Wendy Cope’s text “You like my poems? So pay for them”. In text 2, there is a very low level of abstraction “I see without paying you because… well, just because I can” [2] and the humor-element is also clearly represent in specially Massey Ferguson’s comment. All these elements, humor, informality and abstraction are all helping making the text down to earth. On the other hand, Wendy Cope refers to some famous writers and uses direct speech, which indicate, that she has a more serious approach to this discussion, then the comments on Peter Sunde’s article. She also involve her own personal experiences “My poems are all over the internet”[3] Wendy Cope employs a little bit of irony, when she says “I sometimes feel a bit annoyed by the prospect of people making money out of my poems when I’m too dead to spend it.”[4] The quote contains an underlying earnestness of the subject, without being too serious about it. Wendy Cope uses mostly denotative words “And I feel sad for other poets”[5] but it’s used in an emotionally and kind of personally way. She uses pathos, to get the readers attention with compassion.

Both the comments to Peter Sunde and Wendy Cope’s texts generally use some very active sentences. This helps the reader being more informed about the extent of the problem and that it’s very relevant and happening just now.

Taking your starting point in one of the texts, discuss whether copyright of music, texts and films can and should be protected

What Peter Sunde actually claims to be an evolution, within the music and film industry, is basically stealing. Peter Sunde believes that, it would be a lot better, if everything were free and open to the public on the Internet. His idea that at once something is released, it has to be eligible to everybody is an egoistic and naive thought at a high level. What he actually says, between the lines, is that all the musicians should no longer earn money for producing music. If the musicians don’t get paid, the quality level, of produced music, will fall dramatically. Throughout his article he tries to put the blame on the democracy, in his desperation to justify his own illegal law violations. He can be sure, that someday he will be caught with his pants down

There will never be an agreement to this illegal downloading. The majority doesn’t want to pay for films and music, when they can stream it for free on the Internet. The battle between musicians and the rest of the world will some day be in favor of the majority and everybody will have rights to either download everything for free or be forced to buy the CD’s in the store.

[1] The Pirate Bay’s Peter Sunde: It’s Evolution, Stupid: P. 3. ll. 88-89

[2] Massey Ferguson, Comment on ”The Pirate Bay’s Peter Sunde: It’s Evolution, Stupid” P. 4. ll. 16-18

[3] You like my poems? So pay for them: P. 5. l. 55

[4] You like my poems? So pay for them: P. 7. ll. 133-135

[5] You like my poems? So pay for them: P. 7. l. 136