I interviewed Summer. She seemed like a good person to interview because she knew some information about intellectual property, but also did not seem too concerned about the real aspects of it so I wanted to find out what she really knew and thought. Overall, I found it interesting that her main concerns were having her internet shut off because I think that most college students might think that they are able to get away with illegally downloading, when a surprisingly large amount of students do in fact get caught.
Q: How much do you know about intellectual property?
A: I wouldn’t say that I know especially a lot about intellectual property, but I know that it is basically claiming property over your own original ideas, so I guess copyrighted material. Like if you have an idea, or make a song or design a product, then you go and get it copyrighted, and I guess that would be considered your intellectual property.
Q: Do you understand the laws of intellectual property well, or just know the main points?
A: No, I wouldn’t say that I’m especially familiar with, but I’ve had conversations with people about having an idea and you get it copyrighted and then you try to pitch it to a big company, they can either say “Here’s $10,000m thanks” and take your idea or they can just take it and change it a little bit. I guess I’m just not very familiar with the laws and how they’re applied to every situation.
Q: Are there certain rights you think that creators should have when it comes to their ideas and the things they produce?
A: I think this varies with the product and what the intended use of that product is. It’s difficult with thing such as songs because if you change one beat or you change one lyric, it can become different and it isn’t copyrighted material anymore, but if you take something like a cell phone design, I think that the Apple and Droid drama is a good example of that, and the copyright gets more complicated then. I don’ really have an opinion formed about that.
Q: What about the users of the products?
A: I think that this too depends on what the product is. For songs in particular, I’m really unsure because I have personally taken songs and made a slideshow and posted it on Youtube and it was taken down, even when it’s for a class or something and I have to turn it in. I had bought the song, and I think that I should be able to use it for a class project, but I guess crossing the line is posting it on the internet without permission. I feel like you should be able to post it in a video and let people look at it. It isn’t like they’re going to think it’s my song. I’m obviously going to site whose song it is and I have, but it has still been taken down.
Q: If you could change the laws of intellectual property, what would you change?
A: I would try to make it more equal, meaning that I would make it so that the “little people” would mean more or at least the same as the big corporations. So if as an individual, I have an idea, I should have the same rights as the big corporations and they shouldn’t be able to overpower because they have money and can afford big lawyers for lawsuits. You shouldn’t be able to sue someone for copyright, it would just be like, “this was my material and you used it.” I just feel like it should be equal across the board, no matter who you are or how much money you have.
Q: Do you know many people who pirate media?
A: I would say, probably every single person I know has done it, especially music. But since the shutdown of Limewire, I think that it has decreased by a large amount. The threats of fines and jail time don’t really scare people because so many people do it.
Q: Do you ever willingly pirate media? If so, why?
A: Yeah, I mean, of course. I used Napster and thought it was the greatest thing. It made it easier than buying cds because if you didn’t like all of the songs on a cd, you could just download one and make a personal playlist. But, I’d rather use free media like Pandora.
Q: Does anything stop you from doing it?
A: It isn’t as accessible as it was before.
Q: What is the biggest deterrent?
A: It would have to be the fear of getting a virus on my computer. I only have one computer and I do all of my school work on it. It isn’t worth losing all of my information. Jail and fines don’t seem realistic because I know so many people who have done it. We also get emails from the school saying that they will shut our internet off for two weeks if we’re caught illegally downloading. That has to be one of the biggest fears. All of my assignments are due online and that would affect my school work and it would inconvenience me greatly.
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