Samantha Diubaldi's Copyright Laws Through The Lens Of The Digital Age

W Mathieu Mimms-Boyce

ENGL 110-025

Professor Herra

23 October 2016

Arak Response to Samantha DiUbaldi’s “Copyright Laws through the Lens of the Digital Age” Digital media is a major part of my daily life. Every day I check Instagram, discover photos on Reddit, and browse Tumblr. Samantha DiUbaldi’s “Copyright Laws through the Lens of the Digital Age” caught my eye because of how often I consume media on a digital platform. In this paper, I will provide a summary of DiUbaldi’s essay, and how she supports her claim that current Copyright Laws for photographs are not sufficient, and need to be changed. Following the summary will be an analysis on DiUbaldi’s construction of her argument via use of rhetorical appeals. Subsequently I will provide

that pertain to photographs. DiUbaldi begins the paper by demonstrating that she is a frequent consumer of images found on the Internet, namely through social media sites. Consequently, DiUbaldi, like many other people, has played a role in the diminishing profitability of the modern-day Photographer. DiUbaldi makes the claim that the increase in popularity of social media has led to a decline in photography as profession because of the widespread sharing of copyrighted images on social media. Through her use of rhetorical appeals, DiUbaldi’s essay provides credibility to her claim that Copyright Laws need to

Through her use of each of the appeals, DiUbaldi persuades the reader effectively. By using Pathos, DiUbaldi is able to help the reader to sympathize with the plight of the modern-day Photographer. Many Photographers today do not make enough money from their photos due to the reposting of their content on other sites. Perhaps more important than the appeals to Pathos in her paper are the appeals to Ethos. She begins the essay by using an appeal to Ethos. She appeals to Ethos by establishing how often she checks Social Media at the beginning of the essay. By informing the reader of her role in consuming content in a way she feels should be illegal, DiUbaldi lends a sense of humility to her essay. The reader can see why she feels the way she does. Additionally, DiUbaldi provides further credibility by citing academic journals that have covered the issue of modern-day Copyright laws. However, the most effective rhetorical appeal used in the article is the use of Logos. Specifically, DiUbaldi uses Logos by bringing attention to Eric Schlacter’s “The Intellectual Property Renaissance in Cyberspace: Why Copyright Law Could Be Unimportant on the Internet.”. The reason she brings attention to Schlacter’s article is to bring an opposing viewpoint, and then refuting