Copyright

One thing that I learned from Diane Graves is that the work of an author is protected by copyright law for the life of the author and an additional 70 years. I believe that copyright law is very important in our current society, due to the fact that without it, plagiarism and the stealing of ideas would be rampant. I believe that the works of an author must be accredited to that author and protected from individuals and organizations with the intent to profit illegally from those works. Before modern copyright laws, Mark Twain was constantly involved in legal battles because illegitimate publishing firms stole many of his novels and published them without his consent. Although copyright laws are very important, the protection of an author's works for the entire authors life and additional 7o years seems slightly excessive. This aspect of the law prevents librarians and other scholars from utilizing certain authors' works because, according to copyright law, they are not allowed to. I believe that copyright laws should be enforced to a certain extent and that the current laws should be amended to lessen the amount of time in which a person can utilize certain works of an author.