TOPIC 2.2 DON'T TOUCH THAT! COPYRIGHT, OWNERSHIP AND INSTITUTIONAL CONTROL

The weeks topic of copyright has seen us looking at the history of technology leading to the current digital age. After watching Lessig’s (2007) lecture on Laws that strangle creativity, used examples of historical technologies and the constant changing laws to keep up with the ever changing nature of technology. We heard about the two different types of content being read only (where the content can only be consumed) and read write content (content that can be consumed and recreated) (Lessig, 2007). This is important to know about for many reasons – one being in this digital age we need to understand our rights when creating content as well as the rights of others when we are using content to recreate (like our remediation assignment for example...). This leads me to the concept of creative commons licensing.

Creative commons licensing is used to help creators protect their content and share for other uses should they choose. The best example of this is the copyrighting on Flickr. You automatically have a creative commons licence when you upload images to Flickr – and have the option to share the content to be reworked. There is alot of content there for reworking – but you will have to trawl! Having access to creative commons licensing is vital in this day and age because the digital culture we live in sees us sharing content more and more each year and the licensing ensures the correct creative respect to the creator as well as the ownership of the original work.

Finally the weeks lecture on copyright delves into the current issues with copyright and sharing – namely in music sharing. We are asked by our tutor to come clean about how our own internet usage affects us and essentially criminalises our generation (McAven, 2011).  Having previously studied the music industry in terms of copyright and the developments in the industry to keep up with the digital age, I can say that while I agree that downloading music from illegal sites is damaging to the industry, the real problem is the music companies and the distribution policies they have in place. With a firm grasp on distribution rights changes need to be made to incorporate the digital age in which we live. I for one do download to sample albums – a try before you buy if you like – which leads to me purchasing the music and inevitably paying to see the music live.

Lessig, L (2007) Laws that choke creativity [lecture] Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/larry_lessig_says_the_law_is_strangling_creativity.html

McAven, E (2011) 2.2 Copyright [lecture] Retrieved from http://lms.curtin.edu.au/