Blog Response Copyright and Fair Use Policy

  Finally an Explanation of What Constitutes Plagiarism/Copyright Laws

Copyright Symbol

“Permission is grantedto freely copy this document in electronic form, or to print for personal use.If you had not seen a notice like this on the document, you would have toassume you did not have permission to copy it. This document is still protectedby you-know- what even though it has no copyright notice.”

This is the first thing that I read for this blog response and it is also something that peaked my interest the most. It occurred to me that I’ve never actually read anything like this before; making me aware of what I am not aware of. I know about copyright, but until I read this I was not completely aware of it.

I must say, as I was reading the first like about Copyright laws, I was really happy that we were given this topic to read about and respond too. This is because I have researched copyright before and what is considered ethical VS unethical, to make sure I didn’t accidentally plagiarize another’s work. During my own process of research I wound up even more confuse than I left off. The breakdown of types of works you can potentially be an author too, or accidentally plagiarize from was really eye-opening and helpful. 

These are the types of works that can be made and potentially plagiarized from (taken from the article on Copyright and Fair Use):

(1) literary works;

(2) musical works, including any accompanying words;

(3) dramatic works, including any accompanying music;

(4) pantomimes and choreographic works;

(5) pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works;

(6) motion pictures and other audiovisual works;

(7) sound recordings; and

(8) architectural works

(Did NOT realize all of these works could potentially be plagiarized) 

This immediately made me wonder, how often we as people plagiarize unintentionally due to either lack of knowledge of specific policies, or even unknowingly creating a work that already existed that way. Is it still considered copying if you came up with an original idea on your own? For example: Horror movies that are extremely similar have come out in cinema-publishment time and time again; yet, they don’t call that plagiarism do they?

I am incredibly glad that came out with the Fair-Use policy, because when I think of how many papers, projects and even designs I’ve made, it would have been incredibly hard to do all of the original research on my own, and most likely impossible due to my lack of knowledge. So, thank you policies! 

After reviewing all of the infringements, and the crazy entanglement of the fine line between copyright and fair-use for educational research, I found this quote was the most self-explanatory definition that helps me to define what belongs where and why it belongs under certain categories of authorship/use of someone’s work:

“Plagiarism is a similar issue that may be confused with copyright. The copyright law applies mainly to the economic loss incurred due to an infringement.” – Once again this was taken from the same article Copyright and Fair Use.

Larry Lessig: Lawyer, Activist

·       LarryLessig: Laws that choke creativity:

              This video really just summarized for me the complications and loop wholes in abusing the copyright laws. I feel that the entire history of the internet gave way to the huge issue of what’s acceptable for remaking original works. Honestly I feel a lot of this comes down to accessibility, if you don’t want your piece accessed for research, just don’t publish it.