In order to encourage many people to be creative and innovative, the government came up with copyright laws to protect creators of original work such as authors, artists, and inventors. Copyright laws gives creators of original work exclusive rights to their works and to ensure that other people do not take credit for the work they have not done. Therefore, copyright laws are aimed at protecting intellectual properties. However, “fair use” is part of copyright laws that gives other people the permission to use copyrighted materials without seeking approval from original creators. Like any other law, fair use has limitations that users of copyrighted materials must comply with (Clarkson, Miller & Cross, 2018). In the case involving Duplos College Bookstore and Ebooks, it is clear that the former has violated copyright laws.
According to the “fair use”, there is no infringement of copyright laws if a person uses copyrighted materials for non-profit educational uses like teaching in a classroom (Ghafele & Gibert, 2014). In addition, it allows the compilation of multiple copies of copyrighted materials if they are meant to be used in teaching. Therefore, based on the principle of fair use, Duplos College Bookstore is legally allowed to compile several copies of Ebooks material and distribute them to students to aid learning and sharing of knowledge. Duplos College Bookstore does not have to seek approval from Ebook to compile copies of its materials to be used by students. However, the right to use copyrighted materials that is contained in fair use has been abused by Duplos College Bookstore.
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Fair use does not allow learning institutions like Duplos College Bookstore to use copyrighted materials for commercial gain, but it should be non-profit educational purpose. By selling compiled copies of Ebook materials to students, Duplos College Bookstore is engaging in commercial nature of business. Specifically, it violates one of the requirements of fair rule which state that should be used as a non-profit educational institution (Wistron, 2015). In addition, to benefit from fair use exemption, a teacher must be there in person and engages in face-to-face conversion while using the copyrighted materials, which is not the case for Duplos College Bookstore (Ghafele & Gibert, 2014). Besides, students must be in or in similar place devoted for learning instructions. Hence, Duplos College Bookstore has infringed copyright laws and misused fair use exception by compiling Ebook materials and selling them to students for profit.
At the same time, the act of Duplos College Bookstore of selling books to students has negative commercial consequences on the part of Ebook and other entities and individuals whose materials have been compiled without permission. It means that Ebook and others will not benefit from the sales of their intellectual materials. Compiled copies of literary materials are always cheaper than that of original materials, which may make students to shun learning materials from Ebook. Consequently, Ebook will experience a reduction in its sales volume and revenue while Duplos College Bookstore will benefit from increased sales. Duplos College Bookstore is financially affecting Ebook by selling compiled copies (Clarkson, Miller & Cross, 2018) .
In conclusion, Duplos College Bookstore has infringed copyright laws, especially fair use section by compiling copies of copyrighted materials and selling them to students for financial gains. Even though the materials are meant to be used by students to gain knowledge, they are used for by Duplos College Bookstore for commercial purposes contrary to what is required under fair use principle. Therefore, it is important to redesign the copyright laws to enhance protection of entities like Ebook and to ensure that people and organizations are encouraged to be innovative. There should be heavy penalties for individuals and organizations that violate copyright laws. Entities like Duplos College Bookstore should not be allowed to violate copyright laws.
References
Clarkson, K. W., Miller, R. L & Cross, F. B. (2018). Business Law: Texts and cases . Cengage
Ghafele, R., & Gibert, B. (2014). A counterfactual impact analysis of fair use policy on copyright-related industries in Singapore. Laws , 3 (2), 327-352.
