Legal and Ethical issues

Should information, such as movies, articles, tv shows, music and more media technologies be free?

Here is the main deal here, Copyright. The main point of a copyright, in my eyes, is for a company to make sure that no one else uses their products for profit. Example, a video game such as Pokemon is owned by Nintendo and Game Freak. People cannot go about creating content and making money using the trademarks of Pokemon, such as characters, music, sound effects, etc. But people create a lot of content to show their love and appreciation for something like this. So you go on a website like Deviant-art and see a billion pieces of art on Pokemon, some people selling prints at conventions, others mini figures they made. Copyright is difficult to enforce when there are many people.

Youtube/Google has parameters to help these companies stop users on uploading their content to Youtube.com. Now, it's all fair ,since someone made it and doesn't want someone else benefiting from work they did not do. But the problem with the Content ID program they run is that only big companies can use it. Not individual users. I've seen some of my fellow animators' work put up on other channels without permission and Youtube doing nothing to shut them down. It's unjust. (Youtube Alters Copright Algorithms, Will 'Manually' Review Some Claims)

And we can tell how much these companies have power with programs such as Content ID. Copyright is just there to make sure they make more money, and their hands in the US Government shows that. The case of Aaron Swartz is one to see indeed. The punishment the US Government was considering on Mr. Swartz was approximately 35 years in jail and millions of dollars, all for pirating articles he wished to read instead of paying for a substitution. It eventually led to his death. What the government did was harsh. You don't see rapists, murderers, and psychopaths get treated this poorly. It's unnecessary but copyright gives a lot of power and money to these people. Horrible. (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/14/technology/aaron-swartz-a-data-crusader-and-now-a-cause.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&smid=tw-nytimes&partner=rss&emc=rss&)