Created: January 23, 2020

If not, you better be aware of what we call copyright in this digital age nowadays. Copyright Law believes that “original forms of creative expression can belong to individuals, who have both a moral right to ownership and a legitimate economic right to derive material benefit from the use of these ideas and works by others as an incentive to create further original works” (Flew, 2014). It also creates and motivates people to invest their time, talent and other resources in creating new material – particularly cultural and educational material, which benefits society (Australian Copyright Council, 2019).

Copyright law has brought forward three areas of distinction: (1) facts, ideas and concepts are not ownable, but protected, instead, through original forms of creative expressions such as books and artistic works. (2) the creator has rights over their creative expression, but not the physical form in which that work is produced distributed such as books. (3) a series of exceptions has been developed for the public interest to make material more widely available at no cost (Flew, 2014).

As the digital information continues to spread and distribute easily, the vision of eliminating illegal copying is zero, as observed by the economist Han Varian, so alternative business models needed to be considered. This can include price discrimination, delivery of bundled services, and advertising around digital content as an alternative revenue stream to direct sales (Flew, 2014).

Figure 1. “ONE PIECE STAMPEDE”, Source: https://www.madman.com.au/catalogue/view/49517/one-piece-stampede, Date accessed: November 30 2019

There are massive consequences if individuals or organizations do not follow the copyright laws. One case is the premier of an anime movie ‘One Piece’ that has been leaked, was traced in the Philippines, and the official distributor of the movie warned fans by saying “…not only the perpetrator may land in jail or get fined, but the rest of us will see the end of anime movie releases in South East Asia” (Andrews, 2019).

I’ve chosen to read the Australian Copyright Council on games and software & apps. For games, names, ideas and concepts are not protected by copyright, unless it could be the elements of a game such as the artwork for a computer game or rely on other areas of law such as competition and consumer law (2019). Meanwhile for software, it’s protected as a “literary work” and we must be cautious and detailed in what we place in our terms and conditions of our license (2019). No doubt, this shows how copyright is tremendously critical for the entertainment industries, including myself as a video game programmer.

*Figure 2. Leaked pictures from movie, Source:* *https://www.facebook.com/ODEXanimePH/posts/2798820490130982, Date accessed: December 9 2019*

Video. One Piece Stampede by Toei Animation, retrieved on January 30 2020

References

Andrews, M. (2019, September). ‘One Piece’ Film Leak in Philippines Could End Anime Releases in South East Asia. Retrieved from ELITEREADERS: https://www.elitereaders.com/one-piece-anime-movie-leak-philippines/

Australian Copyright Council. (2019, December). An Introduction to Copyright in Australia. Retrieved from Australian Copyright Council: copyright.org.au/ACC_Prod/ACC/Information_Sheets/An_Introduction_to_Copyright_in_Australia.aspx?WebsiteKey=8a471e74-3f78-4994-9023-316f0ecef4ef

Australian Copyright Council. (2019, October). Games & Copyright. Retrieved from Australian Copyright Council: https://www.copyright.org.au/ACC_Prod/ACC/Information_Sheets/Games___Copyright.aspx

Australian Copyright Council. (2019, October). Software & Apps. Retrieved from Australian Copyright Council: https://www.copyright.org.au/ACC_Prod/ACC/Information_Sheets/Software___Apps.aspx

Flew, T. (2014). New Media (4th ed.). South Melbourne: Oxford.