You’ve read the news stories about grandmothers being arrested for illegal downloads of songs (those Glenn Miller songs are evil!), or twelve year olds charged with copyright violations for downloading the latest Harry Potter movie.

 

Copyright and intellectual property laws in the United States are an interesting mix that can be confusing for the average consumer—and when you add in a DVR, the question of fair use, personal use, commercial use, educational use, and so forth can be a complex maze.

The bottom line for intellectual property issues is simple: the creator of the work wants their money. The middle manager—often a large entertainment studio—wants its share of the money as well. The law gives both consumers and creators (and their middlemen) a set of rules that help delineate when “Moonlight Serenade” can be downloaded, how you can use that DVR’d copy of “The X-Files” pilot episode, and when professors can show PBS shows in class for free—and legally.

Understanding those rules can be a labyrinthine experience that is about as fun as teaching your grandmother how to program her new DVR.

What is “Intellectual Property?”

“Intellectual property” is a broad term for ideas or artistic creations for which the creator owns the license. In essence, whenever a product of the mind or intellect is created, the creator reserves the right to benefit from his or her creation. The law steps in to protect this right.

Copyright exists to protect people who create the works under copyright, to make certain that the creator receives appropriate financial remuneration for their work. Copyright holders can require a fee for the use of their work, or refuse to permit others to use their work; no law or court can compel them to release the product under duress.

In the United States, a copyrighted work can be owned by the creator for 75 years; after that time period expires, the work of art, be it music, film, text, image, or software, becomes part of the “public domain.” Public domain works are owned by no one, there is no copyright to be infringed, and the creator cannot charge a fee for the use of the intellectual property.

The basic idea behind intellectual property laws, then, is that by protecting the creator’s ability to make money from the creation, such laws encourage innovation and help society on the whole to benefit. On the other hand, such simple acts as sharing a recorded movie with a friend, or showing a recorded documentary to a college class can violate intellectual property laws—which some argue stifles the free expression of ideas and art, and takes copyright and intellectual property expressions to an illogical extreme that robs society of the benefit from these works.