Copyright Or Anti-Copyright

1. Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc.

      This Copyright infringement case called the "Betamax case" started in 1984 because Universal City Studios, Inc. sued Sony Corp. of America for the use of VCR's. Universal City Studios, Inc. said that the use of VCR's was breaking one of the copyright infringement laws, using VCR's was reproducing shows and movies without permission of the copyright owners. But Sony knew that what they were doing was not breaking any copyright law. Sony declared that the making of individual copies of television shows and movies for purposes of time shifting. Two years later, the District Court decided that Sony was right, on the basis that noncommercial home use recording was considered fair use of the copyright law.

2. MGM Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd.

     This is another copyright infringement case. This case involves MGM Studios, Inc. suing Grokster, Ltd, for committing a copyright infringement.  MGM sued Grokster because they created a P2P file sharing software. This case is similar to the one with Sony Corp. v. Universal Studios because it was not meant to break any copyright infringement.

This P2P file sharing software was meant to share documents, but not music. The court decided that it was liable for the copyright infringement. The court said, "We hold that one who distributes a device with the object of promoting its use to infringe copyright, as shown by clear expression or other affirmative steps taken to foster infringement, is liable for the resulting acts of infringement by third parties." . As a result 2 years later On November 7, 2005 Grokster announced that it would no longer offer its peer-to-peer file sharing service.

3. Copyright Term Extension Act.

        The Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998 also known as the Mickey Mouse Protection Act extended copyright terms in the United States by 20 years. Before this act, the copyright in an object would last for the life of the author plus 50 years, or 75 years for a work of corporate authorship. This act extended that time 70 years and 95 years.

The act also affected copyright terms for copyrighted works published prior to January 1, 1978. This act made it harder for copyrighted property to become public domain.

4. Anti-Copyright

     The anti copyright is meant to stop the copyright laws. There are lots of groups that fight the copyright laws; the infoanarchists, the anticopyright, the copyfight, and the copyleft. Anti-copyright is also a phrase without legal meaning which may be placed in anti-copyright statements that are added to works in order to encourage wider distribution.

Some of the reasons the anti copyright are against copyright laws is because they think that people should be able to print or copy as many things as they want. They also think that we should be able to take something and try to improve it.

5. Opinions

      I think that the case between Sony and Universal had a good outcome because Sony's purpose of the VCR's was to let people record their favorite shows and movies when they are at work or somewhere where they just cant watch it. About the case between Grokster and MGM, I think that the outcome was not good because just as Sony, Grokster never meant to make a copyright infringement, their purpose for the P2P was to share documents, not music. I think that the Copyright Term Extension Act is a good idea because it wouldn't be ok if you had to do a lot of work and then anyone could just take that away from you. Finally, I think that the Anti- Copyright are right because we should be able to use any object and try to improve it without any consequences.