Friday, March 25, 2011

Assignment #9

Fair use, where to begin? Well let me say that I did not do as well on the fair use quiz as I anticipated. I guess some things a lot of people take for granted and really don't understand what's right and what's wrong. I have really developed a new found respect for copyright laws. Please don't think that I am the copyright pirate, because I am not. I am, however, guilty, of downloading a ton of music, free of charge when Napster was first sprung into the world wide web - don't act like you havent done it either! In the article, Copyright 101written by Kate Thompson, copyright is defined as a form of protection provided by U.S. law to the creators of original works of authorship. Copyright laws and intellectual property laws in general are based on two basic beliefs:1. Anyone who creates an original, tangible work deserves to be compensated for that work. 2. That person should be able to control how that work is used. I think these beliefs state what copyright is in it's most literal of terms.

I believe that this should be a topic that should be discussed in schools. There are so many different "short-cuts" available to help get you things and this could be an infraction of a copyright law. If anything, by teaching students about copyright laws, you are protecting them and your institution. When I was younger, I never even thought twice when I was copying music for free, or even buying bootleg movies. These are just examples but as we read in the articles, there are many other laws broken pertaining to copyright. I don't blame the people who have created something and getting upset when someone steals their idea or work, I'd imagine I would be upset also.

1 comment:

  1. When taking the quiz I thought I was going to do better as well. You really don't think about copy right in this way until your faced with it.

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