Amanda's original post:
Week 1: Copyright Issues
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| Image courtesy of (2008) MikeBlogs. Some rights reserved. |
After viewing and reading the articles provided to us about
copyright it is hard to wrap my head around how this term or law has changed
and continue to change the way we share, view and create information, art, and
media.
I had never particularly paid attention to some of these
laws and what they truly meant. This topic has really opened my eyes to a
concept that was something I had never known much about as well as Creative
Commons, which seems to simplify this ever changing and relatively outdated
law.
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| Screenshot of “A Shared Culture,” by Jesse Dylan. |
I think Creative
Commons was created out of the necessity for all of the confusing copyright
infringements that can happen unknowingly. Larry Lessig’s ideas were an
essential step forward to help with this massive law. As technology grows and
changes, transforms the way people create and view their cultural relevance. So
changes in these copyright laws and new Creative Commons is inevitable and will
continue to impact how media and art is shared to suit these every changing
needs.
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| Screenshot obtained from centerforsocialmedia.org/fair-use |
The notion of Fair Use was intended to provide a safe guard so
that copyrighted material can be used or reshown but only in limited and vague circumstances.
Which can seem a bit confusing. So with
the notion that, yes this term Fair Use apply and doesn’t apply to situations
you may have once thought, brought fourth a Fair Use best code practices guide
to help the creator, figure out some of the Fair Use Practices that are
applicable to the content the creator is using to recreate his or her own work.
The case with Shepard Fairey seems to fall under these inconspicuous
Fair use practices but many people fall on either side of the spectrum with
this case especially because of the earlier work Fariey has created as well as
not providing credit to the original artist.
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| Screenshot of Larry Lessig's TED Conference |
This topic has undoubtedly been an eye opening learning
experience to the laws and how I look at material viewed or created. One point that stood out particularly and can
really apply to whole idea of copyright was given by Larry Lessig in his TED
conference, describing the term “Democratize” which is roughly described that
“anybody with access that can take sounds and images from culture to recreate
and say things differently. Theses tools of creativity have become tools of how
our kids think, speak, and their relationship to themselves.”
