Copyrights

Although copyrights have been a form of protection for artists for many years, it is all too easy for those who break those laws to go unpunished. As a college student, I see copyright laws broken on a daily basis. Even more now that the economy is not exactly the best its been in recent history. No one wants to spend the extra little money they have on compact discs when they can just get the audio material from a source like Limewire or Frostwire. These programs are free and allow the user to download anything from audio to video. Students all over the nation, and this campus as well, use these services instead of purchasing the artist's work. That breaks the copyright law but no one ever really gets punished for it. It would take an extremely large amount of law enforcement personnel to even begin to crack a dent in something like this. And, even so, what would happen to crime and drug fighting. So, it seems that breaking copyright laws in that instance, will only continue to occur. Another situtation I have witnessed during my lifetime is when someone records a sporting event. It clearly does not matter that at some point in the broadcast, the organization makes sure to point out that it is against the law to reproduce or record the event without the expressed written consent of the organization. I have seen this "crime" be committed many times and I have never seen anyone get into any trouble for it. It seems that there are a lot of ways to break copyright laws. People throughout the world have figured out how to do so without dealing with the repercussions. And, due to the high levels of crime and drug use in this nation, I do not see law enforcement cracking down on it any time soon.