Copyright Information

Since the copyright law was internationally accepted and implemented, aside from entertainment professionals and lawyers, there was no reason why a mere mortal had to bother to know anything about the legal gibberish. The most people knew was that the little sign for copyright meant it is copyright protected, but that was all. Since the Internet achieved global popularity, people who used to swap software, music, games and other content freely in private of their homes, transferred that practice to the Net. Nobody really felt that they were doing anything wrong, most have no idea that since recently that practice has been rendered illegal. How were they supposed to know? Nobody really educated the public, before the Napster case broke out, and while the fight between the small file sharing software developer and the industry giants raged, not a single one plaintiff thought for one moment to address the millions of users and explain them why this was happening. All the public knew was that they could easily get access to prime music content and now they can't. The more the fight went on, the more the public resented the big companies and also prominent figures crying about lost income, especially since the most prominent speakers, the band Metallica was filthy rich and wasted the most of the money on booze and drugs. Nobody really likes the music industry companies, not even the musicians working there, the huge corporations are known to extremely exploit the artists, without giving them the proper treatment and financial compensation. Therefore nobody really understood all the hoopla surrounding this friendly swapping. Everybody used to borrow records from friends, everybody did make tapes of favorite tunes, cassettes with music compiled with content they did not own. What is suddenly different? Well, the public never really was educated about the copyright law and what was okay to do with purchased music. The main culprits are the big record companies, because they simply did not care about customers, all they cared was to additionally make money, means were irrelevant. The abusive relationship these huge recording industry mammoths groomed over the years continue to this very day. They never really inquire with the public what music they would like to listen to, they serve them music with the highest profitability rate, not really caring if it's any good. Not that they would know what's good and what not, the fact being that these companies are run by bankers and lawyers. Nevertheless, people listened up, frightened by the downfall of the favorite music source, plus some small efforts put in by the government, finally resulted in the public receiving some copyright law education, mostly through self-initiative.