copyright and freedom of infomation

Copyright and Freedom of Information
Part 1 A
Copyright infringement can be a very costly action to anyone in the eyes of the law. The rise of technology has made it one of the hardest laws to enforce. Even those who are staunch law abiding citizens find themselves breaking it either unknowingly or because it is the shortest route to information. Media practitioners and students have a variety of options to help them avoid infringing this law. The best way is to always ask for permission from the legal owners of the content either by buying it or having an agreement with them. You can also decide to rewrite the ideas in your own words if possible before releasing the content to the public.
It is not advisable to use large portions of someone else’s ideas. For instance, rewriting part of a book word for word and giving it out for commercial purpose is an offense. In such scenario, it would be prudent to credit the owner or come to some sort of legal agreement with the author of the content. It would also be a good idea, especially for students, to take advantage of ‘fair use’ policy. This is copyright law that allows limited use of a copyrighted content without specifically asking for permission from the owner. This law applies only when the consumer uses the content for noncommercial purpose.
Part 1 B
I agree with you that copyright infringement is hard to monitor. This has even become tougher for the authorities considering that many people use the now improved technology to get access to information illegally.

For instance, YouTube has put in place strict rules to avoid any illegal use of original content. However, many YouTube users have come up with various tactics to work around those rules and still gain some money out of other people’s content. Many people out there consume this content not knowing who the original author is. This shows how people are more concerned about the law than someone else’s hard work in coming up with that content in the first place. Sometimes letting the public know of the original owner’s great work is worth more than the money you would have used to buy that content.
Part 2
Exemption 6: Information that, if disclosed, would invade another individuals personal privacy.
The Freedom of information Act provides the public with the right to request for access to information stored in a federal agency. This right however comes with limitation and access to some information may not be granted if it falls under any of the nine exemptions stipulated in the Act. Information about someone’s personal privacy, for instance, is not allowed to get into the hands of the public if it meets a certain threshold. This therefore limits the media to certain information regarding an individual.
This, to some extent, hurts the media’s right to inform the public. The media has their own rules on what content they can release to the public. This therefore should give them the right to access any information they need from the federal agency in order to make an informed decision. Releasing someone’s private information to the public has always been discouraged and every media house is well informed about that. However, in order to release accurate information to the public, some more information is required.
It could be argued that the moment such information get into the hands of the media, they will, in one way or another, get into the hands of the public. This is where professionalism is needed to be at its best and only a few individuals from the media allowed access to such information.
In conclusion, mainstream media is the source of news to all citizens and the more accurate the information the better. When the amount of information allowed for broadcasting is the same information that the public already has is when the media loses all the meaning. It would be a good idea if the person whose private details are in the hands of the federal agency is allowed to make his own decision about media’s access to such data.
Reference
https://www.foia.gov/faq.html#exemptions