Friday 25 March 2016
Week 10: If it causes financial loss, it's wrong
I find this week's blog question to be very interesting, especially because I have never encountered the problem Prof. Galey describes in this week's question. I have always been able to find a stand alone e-book file that I can download without having to use a specific software. That being said, I don't often go searching for e-books as I am one of those people who prefers the ancient art of reading from a physical book, so I am more than positive that Prof. Galey has more experience with downloading e-books than me, which is why he has probably encountered more problems with downloading e-books than I have.
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My primary assumption is that if someone has lawfully accessed/retrieved/downloaded a file, they don't own the material but are allowed to share it. However, as last semester I took an ethics course and this semester I am taking a legal archives course - both courses in which we discuss copyright extensively, my primary assumption has quickly been deflated, especially as distribution of material which you are not authorized to distribute results in a financial loss to the creator/owner of the content.
Two examples immediately come to mind:
(1) Netflix has a variety of packages that allow one account to be used on multiple devices simultaneously. For this reason, I know many people who with a group of family/friends split the cost of a Netflix account and share the account in order to save money, especially as all you need to access these movies is a eligible username and password. I obviously don't own the movies, but as I have purchased the right to access - have I not also purchased the right to share my username and password with my family and friends in order to be financially savvy? From a legal standpoint, I want to say no, I can't legally share the material because I have the ability to share it with an infinite amount of people, therefore causing a loss to the company that holds the material legally.
However, interestingly enough, upon further research, I stumbled upon an article recently published by CNet that discusses that the CEO of Netflix is actually "cool" with account users sharing their account information! The article does mention how many people consider this to be an "online faux pas" and also worry that account sharing may be illegal, which I can understand it can be because Netflix does not give users the right to distribute their content, just the right to access it. So broadly speaking, sharing a Netflix account can easily be considered piracy.
(2) My friend recently downloaded a nutrition plan from a famous fitness blogger; it's a PDF of about 120 pages. The PDF cost her $169 to download and upon downloading, she proceeded to share this with several of her girlfriends who also wanted the plan, but chose not to shell out the money for it. With this example, I can notice several problems. A digital file such as a PDF can be easily multipled by simply sharing it with other people - this causes the creator to lose out of sales of a PDF. Imagine if every girl who downloaded the nutrition plan sent it to 10 people instead of these ten people buying it for themselves - the creator loses out on $1,690 worth of sales! My friend does not own the content but she has accessed the content lawfully by purchasing the materials - however, does she own the right to share it? Again, I want to say no because her actions are essentially causing a loss to the creator. But if this nutrition plan was a part of a book and my friend lent the book to someone, is that wrong?
Essentially, my own notion of access and ownership is not entirely comprised yet and I think this is because of the abrupt and rapid rise of digital texts. Digital texts are far easier to share and multiply than physical texts and more discussions need to take place to determine what exactly is allowed and what isn't. Until then, we have the Copyright Act which is quite conclusive as to what it protects since it does encompass the protection of written works, videos, oral histories, music, etc. Although, my thoughts on the matter are not entirely developed, I am a big supporter of not distributing any content which you are not allowed to distribute. The movies/telly shows I watch are all accessed via my own account from Netflix, and the scholarly journals I access are all thanks to the UofT library catalogue - so I can proudly say I am not causing financial loss to creators of this content.
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Johns, Adrian (2009). Piracy: the Intellectual Property Wars from Gutenberg to Gates. University of Chicago Press. Chicago, Illinois: The Chicago Press. Retrieved from http://books2.scholarsportal.info.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/viewdoc.html?id=/ebooks/ebooks2/ucpbooks/2012-03-30/1/9780226401201&page=26
Macdonald, Loryl (2016). Intellectual Property Laws [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from University of Toronto's Blackboard.
Nieva, Richard (2016, Jan 6). Netflix is cool with you sharing your account. CNet. Retrieved from http://www.cnet.com/news/netflix-is-cool-with-you-sharing-your-account/
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Thanks for sharing Natasha.
ReplyDeleteWith Netflix I find this line is blurred a little bit. Netflix, of course, has their own access restrictions, one of which is the ability to have a limited number of devices using one account at the same time. I haven't taken any courses on ethics or the legal aspects of account sharing, but it seems to me that Netflix almost assumes that the account will be shared. One person isn't likely to be using multiple devices simultaneously. Is there a difference between a family sharing an account and a group of roommates sharing an account? If not, is there then a difference between a group of friends who don't live together sharing an account? My thought is that it might logically depend on physical space. It's not like you would consider having a friend over to watch something on Netflix as illegally sharing the material. Then again, part of the appeal of Netflix is that you can access it from anywhere, whether you are at home or traveling. With this in mind, it seems quite unclear where the line should be drawn.
Natasha, I find it super interesting that Netflix is "cool" with people sharing accounts and passwords. Until very recently, there has been speculation that Netflix didn't really care that users were viewing Netflix content via VPNs in order to view content licenced in another country. However, over the past few months, Netflix has been very vocal and are proactively warning users suspected of viewing content on VPNs that this is not allowed (I'm not sure on the detail and language being invoked). I wonder if Netflix has given into government or industry pressures? I wonder if they are worried about possible future difficulties in negotiating content for their (American) market? In any case, Netflix really reminds the (mostly non-American) users that they are paying for access and not ownership. I think this is a concept that many people have a hard time grappling with (or at least accepting--especially given its disadvantages).
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