Copyrights and The Culture
As was witnessed with many cases, including the Napster cases, copyrights are a huge force in the music industry in terms of protecting a certain product or service from being stolen. Its seems that in an industry that has a more cultural influence than structural, it becomes more difficult for a copyright to protect a certain product. Copyrighted music creates billions of dollars in profit every year and these profits bring in the majority of the money in the music industry. Music is heavily guided by creative expression so it almost seems infeasible to establish copyrights on many of the ideas put forward. This becomes a question of where one should draw the line in terms of establishing a new product or idea and allowing its free use. It is generally accepted that musical ideas stem from ideas within their cultural boundaries so, to what extent should copyright laws affect what is one's property, and what is a shared musical idea?
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