After watching Lecture 33 on Intellectual Property, I wanted to research copyrighted pornographic material. I found this article, Cyber-porn abounds on Network Neighborhood. The article is about how they found out that "pornography is both accessible and permitted in Yale students' shared files (para 2)" in Yal's Network Neighborhood. Their general policy is not to go looking for pornography in the Network Neighborhood. But get real, students will be searching for porn. Many students were able to access pornographic pictures and material that were most likely being distributed illegally. "It is illegal to publish copyrighted materials online without being granted rights (para 11)." A copyright is a set of exclusive rights granted by government for a limited time to protect the particular form, way or manner in which an idea or information is expressed. Therefore, these pornographic pictures and material could be copyrighted. I think that copyrighting pornographic material is a good thing. People may argue that other people who do pornos are taking the risk of the material being exposed everywhere on the internet, but I think they deserve the right to protect their work.
{April 30, 2006}
Copyrighting Pornographic Material!
[...] Kate makes a valid point that copyrighting porn similarly to music and film is a good idea for their given industries. The porn industry is obviously very large and profitable. This is due to the drastic prices of porn dvd and video. A given dvd can run your bank account about forty dollars these days. With high prices like this it is very likely that copying and illegal distribution will continue. [...]