Copyrights

Today I was very surprised to learn how extensive copyright law is; now I realize why universities spend so much time and resource educating students on how to avoid violations and prosecutions. By the end of the lecture I was keenly aware of two very different perspectives on copyright: that of the law or publisher and that of the consumer.
I am in complete agreement with copyright laws in that every scholar, artist, or creator deserves full credit for his or her work. I can only imagine what a frustration it would be to have one's work aimlessly duplicated, or even worse, stolen and passed off as belonging to someone else. I'm certain that most consumers would agree with me when I say that the absence of copyrights would be detrimental to the continued growth of our culture. These are the ideals behind copyright laws; however, measures to protect the authenticity and integrity of works have been taken to extreme lengths, particularly in regard to university students.
I was disappointed to learn that college students are being constantly monitored and prosecuted despite the fact that only 4% of US file-sharing takes place on college campuses. Its understandable to assume that college students would be among the worst of file-sharing culprits, I myself was surprised at the 4% statistic; still, these prosecutors are well aware that college students are not their greatest threat, leading me to believe that they are simply making examples of young people who are in the public eye.
Being a college student myself, this latter issue is what really grabbed my attention; however, the issues surrounding the rights of the author in relation to publishers also deserves consideration. Apparently when an artist or scholar signs on with a publishing company he surrenders all copyright procedures and terms. I was exited to learn that collaborative efforts such as Creative Commons are finally being made to give the creator autonomy in customizing a copyright that suites his preferences.
I very much appreciated all of the information that was presented in the lecture today, and I'm curious to see what copyright protocol will look like in the future for both authors and scholars.