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"An author should have the right to benefit from his work, but that benefit should not be extended infinitely. Copyright protection on an author's work should be limited in such a way as to allow others to build upon the original author's work."

Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the opinion stated above. Support your views with reasons and/or examples from your own experience, observations, or reading.

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Submitted Essays

xx: 3/6/2010

	The argument above has to be dealt in different ways depending on the contents of the book . Copyrights have to be formulated on the type of the book . A book can be a research oriented on which the author must have spent his time and energy in building it . These

Rathnam: 3/10/2010

The given issue is that an author can benefit form his work but not infinitely and also that the copyright protection on an author's work should be limited so as to allow others only to build upon original author's work.I Completely agree with the opinion stated and present my supportive statements here.

It is a well known fact that everyone has the right to take credit for his/her own work.So an author who has put his new thoughts and ideas into his work has complete right to claim benefits from any other work like movie or other author's work which seems to imitate or copy his work.Otherwise there would not be any new works due to lack of recognition.

For instance,there has been a great deal of conflict between the Author of "Five Point Someone", Chetan Bhagat and director of "3 Idiots" movie a few weeks back.Because the movie is based on that work,the author's name is also mentioned in the movie and the author was also given his share of credit and profit.

However, the issue did not end there.The author claimed that the movie has entirely the same story as that of his work and hence demanded more share.That was resolved later by finding the extent to which the movie is based on his work.Such cases arise if there is no restriction on the extent to which a work can be used and also on the extent to which author is to be benefited.

Hence, there must be strict laws regarding copyright protection ensuring that no work can be imitated or used without proper permission from it's author.

Raj: 4/2/2010

	Benefit is given till his work is in use and that is a very logical one. Till his work will keep on benefitting others, he should also be benefitted. Use of the work should have some simple process so as maximum no of people can use the work or get benefitted out of that.

RB: 5/1/2010

I partially agree with it. Reason being, despite having so many stringent norms on piracy, we are still not able to control this menace. So, further loosend norms might be more disastorous.

Moreover, building upon one's original work kills natural thought process. Somtimes it restricts new ideas flowing into the society. So, there should be well defined boundaries in place while allowing the use of anybody's work, parallely ensuring proper credit to original author. Otherwise we'll see more directors and writers exchanging heated glances on t.v. screen.

However, some smart authors come up with entirely new concept using one's work. They for sure cannot be blamed for piracy.

Bottom line is orignality & new ideas should be encouraged but not at the cost of the efforts of original writer.

Bala: 7/1/2010

I agree with the topic that although an author has the right to benefit from his work he cannot be enjoying that benefit infinitely. A balance has to be achieved exactly until at which point a copyright protection has to be kept active and when it has to be ceased.

We have seen a handful of authors write books that have captivated and engulfed the hearts of millions of fans across seas and lands. From fairy tales to pulse-raising fiction to punch delivering biographies and autobiographies authors of books have been heroes and heroines for centuries now. To pull off such good work and create some truly incredible repercussions on people who read them they deserve their work to be covered by the copyright law.We require the existing writers and new bright and promising ones to be given the confidence that whatever they publish will stay their own so that their talent and contribution is acknowledged appropriately.For example,I believe Sidney Sheldon,Enit Blyton and J.K Rowling, who are the rulers of the world of fictional books have stood firm in publishing editions after editions of their work because they were assured of their work not becoming victims of plagiarism.

However we should also be not naive by protecting an author's work forever. If an author's work serves as a substantial platform for someone else to produce a more impactful,colourful and livelier work that can reach more people, raise the standard and quality of the former work without compromising the fame and the intended meaning of the work of its father it is best that copyright protection is lifted for the betterment of the contribution of the idea concerned. Ofcourse, the author who took the idea from the actual book has to explicitly acknowledge and accept it by referring the readers to the actual book.We see from time to time that a healthy number of textbooks and reference books related to academics have been constructed by effectively modifying the contents of some other book so that information conveyed by the book is kept as genuine and up to date as possible.

Hence copyright protection can be relaxed of its strong hold off books when only if the newer one becomes a better version of it in all aspects discussed above.

DEVAKI DEVI G: 7/24/2010

Creativity in any form life writing,directing movie, or paint etc,should always be appreciated and the creator or the author should get benefit from his work.

However, as the argument says it should to the infinte. I agree with this. Why because the original idea if it is re-written inaccordance with changed time and values, will make the original writer as immortal.

For example the fairy tale of "Cindrela", which was transformed in different ways and still getting passed on to the new generations.

Coming to Indian Mythology the epic story of "Ramayana", which was written originally in sanskrit, got translated in to somany, Indian or Asian languages and still in the reach of new generations. So that society can learn the moral values, cultures from this epics.

"The Geetha", extracts which are getting explained in IIM and other Managment shcools, is a very good example or emphasis the need to allow others or generations to build upon the original author's work and pass the benefits to the generations.

With the above cited examples, I agree that the author's work should be flexible to allow the other author's to re-write or represent the essence of the Idea. And the intangible benefit the author get is that his name is immortal. Like "Vyasa Maharshi", "Vatsyayana"