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= Copyright and illegal downloading = -Alex Beech - Copyright can keep a person’s work unique. Copyright is when one person takes another person’s idea and claims it as their own. This is unfair and if the copyright law was not in place, people will not be accredited for their hard work. The most common pieces that are stolen is art, writing, texts, music, sound recording and videos. Copyright can be broken when there is no permission given from the creator, an example is downloading music via a downloading site, such TubeMate, YouTube downloader. The purpose of the copyright law is to keep a persons ideas unique and to reward their hard work.
 * 1) **A brief explanation of copyright law. What does it mean and how is it broken. What is the purpose of copyright law?**

- The most serious copyright crimes have penalties of 5 years imprisonment and/or between $60,500 - $93,500.

Recent copyright In 2008 Cold Play was band, who had posted a recent youtube clip of a song. Joe Satriani who is a rock artiest had a six and a half minute solo which he claim that Cold Play plagiarised. The 52-year-old is seeking a jury trial, demanding damages and "any and all profits" from the song. Consumers have it very easy to illegally downloading music as it is very hard crime to control. This a positive outcome in some ways for the creator of the music, because they then know people are listening to their music and would therefore have a chance to get on the radio, or even tour. On the other hand, record and production companies are not getting paid and so are not being rewarded for hard work. Also if consumers like a band they are likely to buy merchandise of the band, giving the band money for what they’ve done. The Federal Government has a negative effect on illegal downloading; they would lose money if they were to crack down on people pirating music and films. The unemployment rate will increase because people will start to lose jobs because they are not earning money and because of all their hard work and releasing songs production companies will lose money as well. The price of CDs will therefore go up because there is a low supply and because everybody is downloading without paying, why would people want to buy an expensive DVD / CD if they can get it off the internet for free?


 * [[image:mazenodcopyright/l.jpg]] || This is an officially licensed image of Warner Bros. Studios. Using this without permission would be copyright infringement. ||
 * [[image:mazenodcopyright/m.jpg]] || This image, although not an exact copy of the Warner Bros. version, is still close enough to the original. Its use would probably be seen as copyright infringement. ||
 * [[image:mazenodcopyright/n.jpg]] || This image, which is an unfamiliar picture enough not to be mistaken for Bugs Bunny, would be safe to use without contacting Warner Bros. for permission. ||