Is copyright still viable in the digital age? Is there ever a truly static concrete product? The web is made of code, images are just the visual representation of code music the aural representation as a consequence the digital photo is infinitely more workable than the analogue photo and the mp3 is vastly more arrangeable than the tape or cd or lp of the past. case in point I've already edited this blog around three times since originally uploading it. This code can be thrown with no loss from computer to computer, from user to user faster and faster these days and been just a malleable on the far end. In a world where it’s so easy to alter a product everyone now has the ability to circumvent copyright protections with ease and put their own personal stamp and voice on a product. This isn’t the information age this is the opinion age. Copy right laws are now as outdated and as irrelevant horse and carriage laws. The internet is the medium/message melting pot.
The digital distribution is at a very crucial point in its development. It’s now beginning to emerge from out of the shadow of its analogue predecessor, and out shine it. It is clear that the old business styles of the past are entrenched in the mind set of many business people and writers of legislation. This is clear by those who try to restrict this new flow of information with stronger and tougher copyright laws, napster and pirate bay being two early causalities. But such measures do not ever stop or truly ever slow down the flow of content from user to user. The copyright laws of old are inapplicable to digital products and no matter how many you apply to the digital world distribution will never behave as it does in the analogue world. You can feed a cat as much grass as you want but you won’t get it to moo.
The fact is that digital is getting better at imitating analogue at a far quicker pace that analogue is coming to terms with digital. Now we have large wide screen television screens on the market with hard drives and internet access, we have products that can store thousands of books and are designed to mimic the feel and experience of the analogue original. And as clumsy as these attempts appears they are just the first step down a path there won’t be any coming back from, and with each subsequent step the pace will pick up bit by bit.
Bibliography:
Guantlett, David and Horsley, Ross. Web Studies, 2nd edition. London: Hodder, 2004.
Roberts,Graham. “Movie-making in the New Media Age .“ Web Studies, 2nd edition. London: Hodder, 2004. 103-113.
You haven't actually referred to the articles in question. This is a meditation on the wide-ranging topic of copyright, but you have not engaged with the specific texts assigned.
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