This week we briefly touched on copyright the issues with ownership in the internet world.  Our reading this week was furthering these ideas through the webpage for the Arts Law Centre of Australia where we could read up on our blogging rights.  I think this is actually a really valuable idea for a reading.  It was something relevant and extremely important and necessary to know.  The scary reality of copyright and defamation hadn’t really occurred to me before I read this text, but during the reading it did start to sink in.  I have never intentionally plagiarised or copied some one else’s work, but with all the specifics of ownership I can see how it could be easy to slip up.  Yes, I understand plagiarism and how not to do it, but being a first time blogger I just didn’t even consider the legal consequences of not referencing someone’s work.  Also, because this blog is for university purposes (at this point) and not in a traditional examination structure, I didn’t think of plagiarism as an issue.

This reading was very informative.  Leading up to week 3, we also touched on the idea of ‘Creative Commons,’ and I had literally never heard of this.  To put it simply, it is a non-profit organisation which distributes copyright licenses to people who want to allow others to use their work but still have ownership and rights over it.  So, you could have a specific licence which allows others to share your work (which is usually a positive) provided they give you credit.

This has actually been a very productive read for me.  It has opened my eyes into the world of legalities and how serious it can actually become.  it’s a wake-up call for any one who uses any sort of internet or social media– and I would think that in this day and age, everyone is included.  This does not only relate to university, but to my overall life.

Next stop… Looking into disclaimers.