MAC Week 1 Blog Post (Corrected)

My apologies as I got a little ahead of myself and did next week's blog post.  Below is this week's blog post discussing copyright.

The copyright information videos were most informative as I am familiar with the existence of copyright laws, but did not have a full understanding of the law.  The videos provided a wealth of information on this subject and aided me in my quest to better understand the topic.  The first set of videos was informative.  I found the video “Good Copy/Bad Copy” most intriguing, as I’ve been a fan of hip-hop music for over 30 years.  I also have an appreciation for all music from different genres.  I have witnessed the change in the trends in the music from that of the use of original beats to that of sampling music from prior artists.   This was always fascinating to me as I thought the new artists purchased the samples.  However, it was interesting to learn that initially, artists began sampling without giving credit or money to the original artists.

The second set of videos helped to understand the copyright laws cover books, plays, music, movies and plays, but not ideas.  I also learned about the 14-year limit on the copyright and then the release of those items to the public domain for fair use because “the public domain can make new ideas by exploring or using old ones (A Fairl(y) Use Tale).

I also understand that fairs use allows you to borrow a small amount to teach a lesson, news reporting, parody, or make critical comments. However, the nature of the work, the amount borrowed and the commercial impact (can’t change the original work’s value in the marketplace) had to be considered.

The Remix Culture was also an interesting video as it discussed how online videos were allowed to be used by referencing the Code of Best Practices for online videos.  The code stipulates clips can be used for commenting or critiquing, illustration or example, incidental use, cultural rescue, launching discussions or mashups.   The Eyes on the Fair Use of the Prize video saddened me. 

The last set of videos addressed Creative Commons, which allows anything with this type of license to be used with certain regulations, which are noted on the web.

·      Attribution – give credit for the work itself

·      Non-commercial – don’t make $ off it

·      Non-Derivative – can’t change it

·      Share Alike – can be used, manipulated and shared as long as the original creative commons limitations are used, the original owner gives permission and is compensated (if requested).