Networked Media // Week Three Reading

Directed to an Arts Law Australia website for this week’s reading, it was all about copyright, moral rights and Creative Commons. All of the information provided about these areas of legality definitely helped myself in understanding what is and isn’t appropriate or even legal to post on this blog and other social sites I utilise.

As cited, the Copyright Act (1968) in Australia gives automatic copyright protection to: literary, artistic, dramatic and musical works, and films, sound recordings, broadcasts and published editions; with the general ruling that the creator of these given works are the copyright owners. These copyright owners can be very serious and protective of their work, and fair enough – it is rightfully theirs to do what they please; however for the more flexible and open types, there are online domains, such as Creative Commons, whereby owners of a piece of work or product, allow others to freely use their said works. The non-profit organisation offering accommodating CC licenses for creators, permits them to relinquish some of their rights, while possibly reserving others, allowing this network of creativity to flow steady between users and sharers.

Personally, I have never really thought about the images, videos and sound recordings (all produced by other people) that I’ve posted on this blog, with the simple mind that, hey none of them are going to find or worry about it. But thinking now, I probably wouldn’t enjoy or appreciate somebody using my content without acknowledgement or permission. This is why I have acquired a CC licence that requires to simply give me credit for any of my work that they wish to share. Further this licence gives myself permission to share, copy, redistribute, adapt, remix, transform and build upon any material found on the Creative Commons site. But what about works that I don’t find on this site?

Thanks to ‘fair dealing’ and standard moral (don’t be a d-head) rights, I am able to use an image/s for the purposes of: criticism and review, parody and satire, reporting news and if there is sufficient acknowledgement given to the images/videos/sounds’ source or creator. Currently being a student, and using this blog as a part of my study, also gives myself further exception to fair dealing. Basically, just give credit where it’s due, and don’t derogate the source/creator of the content, and the content itself, if you wish to use and share. Especially if it’s from Donald Trump, that guy will probs threaten to sue ya. (source: Youtube, Newsy Politics).