McLeod

I have never really understood the whole purpose of copyright laws when it applies to music. I do agree that it is wrong to steal. Downloading songs and albums off of the Internet for free is like stealing that song or album. I think it is ridiculous that in many cases people have been fined hundred of thousands of dollars and have had to go to court for it. People will continue to illegally download music, albums, movies, and videos. Just putting the word “illegal” next to downloading music will not stop people from continuously downloading songs and other things.

The music industry is the not the only industry that needs to be careful of copyright laws. Businesses and organizations need to be carful of copyright laws as well. So many businesses have had to change their name, logo, or slogan due to copyright laws of another business or organization. Now a days businesses have to be very careful when choosing the correct name, logo, or slogan for their organization because they don’t want to step on any toes and cause copyright issues.

One section of the chapter mentions the making of folk music. In the chapter it mention that folk music “lyrics and melodies were treated as raw materials that could be reshaped and molded in to moments”. He then continues on and says he has notices that six country songs shared the same vocal melody. He argues that this was not an act of copyright or the artist stealing the melody for other artists. He uses the term “artistic laziness” to describe the situation. He mentions that the country songwriters left comfortable borrowing folk melodies because they grew up during the first half of the twentieth century and didn’t think twice about it.