In recent times, it has become increasingly easier for public Internet users to access and acquire copyrighted media content such as movies, music, and games without purchasing them legally. File-sharing networks have challenged current copyright laws with the aid of public scrutiny, leading to the question as to what is fair in the digital age we currently live in (Collins 2008). Originally, the law of copyright (within the US constitution), was designed to protect culturally important created works, from being consumed by monopolies and the corporate world (Collins 2008). However, now in the digital age, the law of copyright seems to have spun wildly out of control. It appears that this law has morphed into a scaremongering like tool, that companies and individuals can employ whenever they feel their intellectual property is being used, without consent and/or compensation.
Professor Eric Faden produced this Disney “mash-up” video to elucidate how truly ridiculous the copyright epidemic has become. He does this by playfully using one of the biggest Production companies of our time Disney, to explain to us how copyright actually works.
Fair use is meant to be a wing of the copyright law used to prevent tyrannic monopolies. However, some scholars suggest that fair use has now become less of a defence, and more a right that that subordinates copyrights (Collins 2008).
References:
http://www.boingboing.net/2007/05/19/fairy-use-tale-amazi.html, accessed 13/3/12, http://www.youtube.com/
Madden, G 2008, ‘Recovering Fair Use’, M/C Journal, Vol 11, No. 6, accessed 9/3/12, http://journal.media-culture.org.au/index.php/mcjournal/article/viewArticle/105
The Internet, An Abyss 