INTRODUCTION:
Copyright does not mean “copy it right”. According to Robin Gross, “the copyright bargain: a balance between protection for the artist and rights for the consumer”[1]. Not all the people in the earth are equally knowledgeable, to seeking information they need to take helps from other creation. Some people think taking helps from others creation and assemble that in their own work in an own way is another creation. But here is the question of how much anyone can take others help or copy from others. To protect the main author from been copied by other, copyright is a lawful blessing. Without giving the credit of the author for his work is illegal. The main purpose copyright is to protect the author from been copied with any allowances. Copying means duplication of information, work, object or materials with the use of other work or property without the legal process. For making a good creation we can copy and there will be no harm if we copy other work with giving the author full credit of their work. “Fair use is always going to be a gray area, and it should be. We need to allow for things we can’t see yet.” [2] copyright should highly impose to secure to author with the help of law, if people are been afraid to create new works.
What is copyright:
Copyright is a right enforce by the law to creators of literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works. There is no copyright in ideas. Copyright exists only in the material form in which people can express the ideas. There is a lack of awareness on various issues relating to copyright among stakeholders, enforcement agencies and members of the public.[3]
Copyright law particularly includes the following types of work:
v Literary work (newspaper, magazines, software, fiction, nonfiction, poetry, manuals and documentation, and also advertisement).
v Musical works (songs and instrumentals).
v Dramatic works (plays).
v Pantomime and choreographic works (dance or mime).
v Pictorial, graphic and sculptural works (photographs, paintings, maps, drawings, graphic art and fine art).
v Motion picture and other audiovisual works.
v Sound recordings.
v Architectural works.
v Audio-visual display.
v Software programs.[4]
What cannot be copyrighted?
Works in the public domain can’t be copyright like ideas and facts. Words, names, slogans, or other short phrases also cannot be copyrighted. However, slogans, for example, can be protected by trademark law. Blank forms, government works (judicial opinions, public ordinances, administrative rulings) need not to be copyrighted.
What Does Copyright Protect?
Copyright provides authors moderately significant control over their work. The four basic protections are:
o To make copies of the work.
o To sell or otherwise distribute copies of the work.
o To prepare new works based on the protected work.
o To perform the protected work (such as a stage play or painting) in public.[5]
The importance of copyright was recognized only after author right. Without this right the author of the work or creation can face monetary loss. The main objective of copyright law is to encourage the authors to create original works and rewarding them the exclusive right for a period to make the most of the work for monetary gain. A copyright is valid until 50 years after the death if the work’s only or last living author[6]. Copyright protects the creator of the original work from the unauthorized duplication or abuse of his materials. A good thing for the author is that a work is automatically copyrighted once it is in intangible form. The creator of original work can only copyrighted their tangible work which can have a chance to copy by others. So anything can be copyright protected if it written means in tangible form. If any author says that his work is saved in sun then his work need not to be copyright protected, because no one can’t touch it or copy from it. We can’t copyright the facts only the work that is created or invented by someone
Thereby to protecting and rewarding creativity copyright ensures certain minimum safeguards of the rights of authors over their creations. No civilized society can afford to ignore the basic requirement of encouraging the creativity because it being the keystone of progress. Without the creativity economic and social development of a society can’t be attain. Every country and every society is unique, so to solve the particular problem for any given country we have to be creative rather copy other work. The main purpose of copyright law is to make people creative. If only copy others work we can’t know ourselves and also can’t give any creative output. The protection provided by copyright to the efforts of creator to create an atmosphere encouraging to creativity, which stimulate others to create more and at the same time motivates to create.
Why should we care about copyright? Because of with copyright law no one can’t infringe on someone else’s work. Without been copyright anyone can use the work and get benefit from it, but as a creator the author can’t do anything because he did not copyrighted it. Copyright law is there to rescue, which give the author a legal right from been copied.
Fair Use or Copyright Infringement:
The copyright holder’s exclusive rights are the considerable limitation by fair use. It decides whether the use of a work is fair or not though no set guidelines available that are universally accepted. Fair use the gray area of legal and illegal use any copyrighted work.
Copyright is a complicated and problematic issue, but people can effectively avoid infringement and still copy stuff. Under the fair use provision do not have to get permission from the creator, but need to give credit to the creator. “Copyrighted images, graphics, video, sounds, and written material must always be referenced; this is true even if the material is only being used once for a class presentation or project. This is important in case you should change your mind and want to use material for commercial or extended purposes; you would have a record of the copyright information and of where and when you found the material.”[7]
Fair use is analyzed using four factors:
• Character of the Use
• Nature of the material to be copied
• Amount and importance of the part copied
• Effect on market for permissions[8]
To became copyrighted it must be independent work of the creator. Copyright law protects only the expression of an idea not the idea itself. To encourage creative work is the main purpose of copyright laws. Fair use permits criticism, comment, news reporting, scholarship or research of copyright material limited use without permission of the author. On the internet copyright infringement is so easy. As soon as an item is available on the internet millions of people worldwide can browse and copy it instantly.
A World without Copyright Laws
Though copyright laws protect the author but some people argue that it hinder access to information. Imagine a world without laws of copyright. What would be scenario on earth with no copyright, maybe its pure chaos or heaven? As long as the printing press exists around us Copyright laws have been there.
In the marketplace and society as a whole, elimination of copyrights would certainly lead to significant confusion and chaos. Creative individuals would sacrifice financial protection for their creations if other people copy their creative work. For example, without financial consideration to the original author as soon as a song was released, it could be re-released by someone else, which is fully illegal.
Businesses whether small or large, unable to protect their ideas and uniqueness would equally suffer from theft. If McDonalds no longer possessed the ability to retain exclusive to their logo what would happen. Competitors McDonalds take the illegal advantage from it. By use of McDonalds logo competitor or any new company can take advantage. They can earn profit of McDonalds and more importantly, it is difficult for consumers to differentiate one company’s products from another’s. In Bangladesh lots of local companies copy not only the logo but also the name as well. Some of local successful businesses have been copied by local company, for instance “Bata” a popular footwear company was copied by the so call footwear “company” Tata. In North South University one of food court name is Mgdonald’s and their logo similar to McDonalds, which is “M”. By the use of popular brand name some corrupted company want to remind their consumer the original brand image with fake test and want some quick profit. By doing so though the fake companies attack initial attention but in the long run consumer can differentiate the service or product if they can’t give identical service as the original companies do.
CONCLUSION:
Copyright gives the legal safeguard not to been copied by other and financial assurance as well. Without copyright protection anyone can copy original work and get financial advantage.
The limits for fair use for the purposes of reproduction of non-commercial research or private study are generally accepted to be 5% or one chapter from a book and 5% or one complete article from a journal issue or set of conference proceedings.[9] Copyright is varying from country to country. In some county it is highly illegal and other give somewhat relax about copyright. Most of the developing countries like Bangladesh are quite relax about copyright because general people in those countries are not capable to obey the rule of copyright. For instance student are in Bangladesh can’t afford costly university book to finished their education. Beside where the computer software are costly than hardware in developed country but it the reverse scenario in developing country, where hardware are costly rather than software. So it is better to impose copyright law at a minimum extent to safe the author. And author should consider the affordability of the consumer.
Though copyright does not protect ideas but it protects their expression. With impose of copyright people can be creative, other then that only copy and paste will make our life problematic. In addition without the protection of copyright law innovation could possibly threaten. Without availability of restricted rights, anyone can get freedom or take chance to innovation because of they feel insecure about been copied and face financial loss.
But on one got all the knowledge in the earth, so it is better to copy rather than theft other property and at the same time we need give the original author full credit of his own work.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Azam M. M. (2010), Law and Our Rights: Copyright law in Bangladesh.
http://www.thedailystar.net/law/2006/02/01/education.htm
Copyright and Fair Use: http://www.umuc.edu/library/copy.shtml
Cardiff (2010). http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/insrv/copyright/faqs.html
Ferrera G.R. at all, cyber law: text and cases, 2nd E
Jeffrey F. B. and Susan S. S.( 1996), Business law for a new century.,
Public law (2010). http://www.publaw.com/parody.html
R. Bill, T. Bill and M. Stephen, Digital rights management: Business and technology (p-42)
Robin Gross Quote (2010). http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/r/robin_gross.html
Stanford University (2010). http://www.stanford.edu/~asierra/cpyright.htm
style=”text-align: justify;” size=”1″ />
[1] Robin Gross, “The copyright bargain: a balance between protection for the artist and rights for the consumer”
[2] Robin Gross, “Fair use is always going to be a gray area, and it should be. We need to allow for things we can’t see yet.” (http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/r/robin_gross.html)
[3] Azam M. M. , Law and Our Rights: Copyright law in Bangladesh
[4] R. Bill, T. Bill and M. Stephen, Digital rights management: Business and technology, p-42
[5] Copyright and Fair Use: http://www.umuc.edu/library/copy.shtml
[6] Jeffrey F. B. and Susan S. S., Business law for a new century, 1996
[7] Stanford University. http://www.stanford.edu/~asierra/cpyright.htm
[8] Public law, http://www.publaw.com/parody.html
[9]Cardiff (2010). http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/insrv/copyright/faqs.html
Correspondence
For: The Lawyers & Jurists
M.L.Hotel Tower Ltd,208,Shahid Syed Nazrul Islam Sarani,
Bijoy Nagar, Dhaka-1000.
Email-admin@lawyersnjurists.com/nomaer@hotmail.com
www.lawyersnjurists.com
Country code+ Ph No.
Ph:0088-02-9571389; 0088-02-9513408,
0088-02-9564329, 0088-02-9564398
Direct cell with country code:
Local Code :
a)0088-01733689444
b)0088-01674647033
C)0088-01552632768