Week #1 Blog Post Comments #2

Vivian Tejedor

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Week 1 Reading Reflexion

Copyright, Fair Use, What are the rules?

Everything seems to have a gray area, as I take in all the information presented in this week’s reading/videos assignment. I am trying to find my position on Copyright and Fair Use issues. I just, cannot find my gray area. The more I know, the more questions I have. The two sources that impacted me the most were 10 Big Myths About Copyright Explained, By Brad Templeton and the TED Talk video: ReMix Culture by Larry Lessig.


All the gray areas of Fair Use and the odds of negative consequences from infringement. In my opinion turn Copyright and Fair Use into an “honor system”. A very flawed honor system, since honor systems usually carry negative consequences for those who break the honor code. One consequence is loss of esteem from the community. However, there are many examples of individuals who break the Fair Use honor code are caught and the consequences are desirable fame, recognition and monetary gains. One example is Shepard Fairey and the Hope/Obama poster. But then did he break the honor code or is this Fair Use at its best, the common sense that Larry Lessig is talking about.

You would not walk into a photographer’s house and swipe a picture from his wall. Why is it ok, if the image is in digital form? Until I can get a grip on the common sense that Lessing is talking about. And believe me I want to Lessing makes a strong point. I will continue to play nice with the copyright friendly squad of Creative Commons.

Resources:
10 Myths About Copyright Explained by Brad Templeton, http://www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html retrieved on 6/8/2009

TED Talk video: ReMix Culture by Larry Lessig, retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/187 on 01/14/2011

Cool Hunting: Shepard Fairay: Obama Poster retrieved from http://www.coolhunting.com/culture/shepard-fairey.php

Image Wordle retrieved from http://www.wordle.net/create

1 comments:

Dwayne BuchananFeb 3, 2012 07:09 PM

@Vivian,
I agree with you that it is a very flawed honor system in which we work. Teachers at my school preach the copyright band wagon when it comes to writing papers and anything to do with print. Fast forward to Power Points and videos and they are not on that band wagon any longer. It seems like as long as it meets my needs it will be OK, this is a flawed thought process. We as teachers need to be the rule not the exception to the rule.

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