Copyright

  Copyright is the legal term that describes the event of someone creating something original, and then to ensure that no one else 'copies' or steals any aspect from this idea - for commercial gain - they will seek out legal protection in the form of a 'copyright' trademark. 

   The length of this protection is usually fairly short, with the creator having the option to renew copyright generally on a year to year basis, but they will always have exclusive rights to renew it before anyone else, once the copyright been granted has been granted in the first place, unless a court of law intervenes and rules otherwise.

  All the time you see people and companies testing the limits and pushing boundaries, in terms of dealing with copyright, and trying to avoid the trap of being caught within its grasp. Some people seem to know how to deal with the laws of copyright better than others, and are able to find loopholes and faults within the system, to then profit or gain some sort of advantage, while some simply ignore it entirely; something we have seen over and over again in the world of illegal downloading. Just this year we have seen one of the biggest cases of copyright infringement of all time, with the now infamous founder of Megaupload Kim DotCom, being found guilty of copyright infringement on an unbelievable amount of different charges to do with the filesharing website.

  It is something that we as students of Broadcast Journalism must learn about in great detail, as the extent of being in breach of it comes with very hefty consequences, and I personally wouldn't like to be employed by a company and to somehow fall into the trap of copyright infringement, as the potential is there to not only lose your job, but a serious jail sentence is very possible.