Complex copyright laws gets even more complicated when it deals with intellectual goods. Intellectual goods have properties that makes it difficult to apply copyright laws on them. In his book "The Copyright Balance and the Weight of DRM," Gillepsie argues that intellectual goods have two major characteristics that are the main causes of such difficulties; that they are nonrivalrous and nonexcludable. Intellectual goods are nonrivalrous in that their reuse does not cause them to diminish. Intellectual properties are nonexcludable because it is difficult to prevent others to use the goods. Due to the fact that intellectual goods are nonrivalrous and nonexcludable, incorporating copyright laws onto those properties is indeed a complex process.
Videos on YouTube are some of the examples of intellectual properties. Unlike using tangible goods, watching a video clip on YouTube does not deplete it. In addition, nobody can be excluded in watching videos on YouTube. Since people who upload their videos on YouTube are well aware of the fact that their videos can be shared or copied, to them, copyright laws are not an issue. Problems associated with copyright laws arise when people upload movies or other copyrighted television shows on the YouTube.
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I like how you incorporated the definition of nonrivalrous and nonexcludable goods into the topic of YouTube. It's true that when you watch a video on YouTube, there isn't less of it. So when copyrighted material is uploaded to YouTube, there is almost 100 % certainty that it will be watched and the intellectual good will be used even though it isn't actually depleted.
ReplyDeleteLike Halley said, it was interesting how you incorporated youtube with the aspects of intellectual goods being nonrivalrous and nonexcludable. Even though the intellectual goods on youtube are freely shared by the users, they can be openly and infinitely shared to everyone. This creates a problem for copyrighted material that keeps on being uploaded to youtube, since the moderators must search through the thousands of videos posted every day, removing those that infringe on copyrighted material. For if that was to stay onto youtube, its availability would be it nonexcludable to the general public.
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