Copyright Blog

I would like to thank Jason Hardin, Manager of Access Services, for taking time out of his day to come and talk to our class. Before Mr. Hardin came to speak to our class, I thought I knew a pretty good amount about copyright laws and what was considered legal or illegal, but he discussed many restrictions and facts I had no idea existed. For example, I knew that it was illegal to take another’s copyrighted work and not give them credit for it, but I didn’t know that once one’s work is set in a fixed tangible medium it is automatically copyright protected. I always assumed in order for something to be considered copyright protected, one had to register with the National Copyright Office. Mr. Hardin informed our class that this was merely recommended. I had also never heard of Creative Commons, which is a nonprofit organization that provides an alternative to Title 17. You can apply to Creative Commons any work of yours and get a license. It allows others to use your work in a fair manner, but it also raises the profile of your work. The Creative Commons license is legally defensible.

I found it shocking companies such as the Recording Industry Association of America, Motion Picture Association of America, and Entertainment Software Association contact Dianne Graves, the Trinity librarian, six to ten times a semester. At first, this angered me. I did not understand how someone could track what I was doing on my personal computer and fine me for it. I found it creepy. I felt as though it was a violation of my privacy. After thinking about it, I understand the law. If I’m sharing music with my friends, then they don’t have to pay for it, which takes money away from the artist of the song. This might not seem like a big deal when only focusing on the small scale of one person sharing one song, but when 100 people are each sharing 10 songs illegally the amount of money the artist is losing increases drastically.

Mr. Hardin also told our class about a website that keeps up with recent copyright laws. http://Publicknowledge.org