A doctrine in the United States Copyright Law is called 'Fair Use'. This states that a person has limited access and use to material regardless of him acquiring permission from the right holder. Examples of this is when teaching or studying as extra knowledge is always helpful and desirable. This is supposed to provide a balance between taking other people's creations and creating with their creations. Like most laws people are unclear about it and many would appreciate a concise answer to what 'Fair Use' is. It is described as a shadowy territory whose boundaries are disputed. This law existed before computers but now with cyberspace, the governments and their laws have not kept up with modernization. This causes many young people to be avoiding the law on a everyday basis. All this aside we must learn to understand this and also rely upon it if we are the creators. Thousands want common sense to prevail but it seems less likely as the people who are Presidents or Prime Ministers are part of the previous generation. They grew up without computers and were unable to create in the same way we do. Years ago, before televisions and modern technology, it was a Read Write (RW) culture. The generation of are parents did not have this integrated into their society but know everybody has tools to create and the difference is they know how to use them in a way that has changed the world extremely rapidly.
Before you throw your hand in the air and say what is the point, you must realize that this is the law and people have sued and will continue to sue individuals. This has occurred many a time on sites such as a YouTube which I'm sure you know of videos that had to be taken down because of copyright issues. But to every law there are exceptions and for example common sense has been employed in the Library area.
Research has found that the key goals of teaching media literacy were compromised of unnecessary copyright restrictions and lack of understanding about copyright law. Fair use, provides broad protection for people working in education. However, due to our lack of knowledge and understanding about the law’s protections, their ability to share, teach, and have students produce media-rich texts was severely frowned upon. Not only that, but the researchers found that teachers’ lack of knowledge was passed on to students as well as colleagues, perpetuating “copyright folklore” that often sees the law as much more restrictive than it is.
The problem is not the law itself but the understanding of the law. If one person doesn't understand the law properly then he or she passes on incorrect information about it to their friends and families. This is why many schools and public organisations have the wrong idea about fair use and just do not condone any 'plagiarism', I know I have definitely seen and had problems with teachers over such issues. If you are wanting to take and use information created by others think of three questions.
What is the character of the Use?
Nonprofit, educational and personal are all good reasons for fair use but commercial reasons would tip the scales considerably as there you would be taking advantage of other people hard work for economic reasons. Then in the case of movies and music, I see parodies, criticizing and reporting as fair but all of these would be 'unfair' for the copyright order if these were to have an economic impact on the secondary creator. I believe that if we do not take other peoples' ideas and expand and improve them then we will never advance as a society or in a technological aspect as well. An obvious example of this is Computers, they started of as huge things which had to be in air-conditioned rooms. Now we have tiny laptops that have touch screens in addition to all the other cool gadgets. All the items found here are things that have been improves gradually over time thus allowing an advance throughout the entire planet.
How much of the work will you use?
More than a small amount would favour asking for permission but a small amount of information would be suitable. A classic example of this is when a teacher copy and pastes something from the site for an educational purpose which will help their pupils.
If this kind of use was widespread, what effect would this have on the market for the original or for permissions?
This is apparent in the film market and music one as well. If people continue to copy the creativity of other through piracy nobody would ever create anything new as it would not be profitable and would not give him or her the same sense of satisfaction, it would give them the opposite a sense of injustice. This is obviously not 'fair use' and rightly it is not condoned by governments and the film and music industry. This is the most important question which you should confront yourself with when you are in front of the Computer screen.
Fair Use is a good law but has been misinterpreted by millions thus causing even more widespread confusion. The two extremes or arguments are counterproductive as if you do not allow fair use at all nothing amazing or improved would be created. This would make the world boring and lifeless but on the other hand in a world where you could take anybodies work with no consequences you would see a similar result. Since there is no motive to create as at once people would take it for themselves.
Research has found that the key goals of teaching media literacy were compromised of unnecessary copyright restrictions and lack of understanding about copyright law. Fair use, provides broad protection for people working in education. However, due to our lack of knowledge and understanding about the law’s protections, their ability to share, teach, and have students produce media-rich texts was severely frowned upon. Not only that, but the researchers found that teachers’ lack of knowledge was passed on to students as well as colleagues, perpetuating “copyright folklore” that often sees the law as much more restrictive than it is.
The problem is not the law itself but the understanding of the law. If one person doesn't understand the law properly then he or she passes on incorrect information about it to their friends and families. This is why many schools and public organisations have the wrong idea about fair use and just do not condone any 'plagiarism', I know I have definitely seen and had problems with teachers over such issues. If you are wanting to take and use information created by others think of three questions.
What is the character of the Use?
Nonprofit, educational and personal are all good reasons for fair use but commercial reasons would tip the scales considerably as there you would be taking advantage of other people hard work for economic reasons. Then in the case of movies and music, I see parodies, criticizing and reporting as fair but all of these would be 'unfair' for the copyright order if these were to have an economic impact on the secondary creator. I believe that if we do not take other peoples' ideas and expand and improve them then we will never advance as a society or in a technological aspect as well. An obvious example of this is Computers, they started of as huge things which had to be in air-conditioned rooms. Now we have tiny laptops that have touch screens in addition to all the other cool gadgets. All the items found here are things that have been improves gradually over time thus allowing an advance throughout the entire planet.
How much of the work will you use?
More than a small amount would favour asking for permission but a small amount of information would be suitable. A classic example of this is when a teacher copy and pastes something from the site for an educational purpose which will help their pupils.
If this kind of use was widespread, what effect would this have on the market for the original or for permissions?
This is apparent in the film market and music one as well. If people continue to copy the creativity of other through piracy nobody would ever create anything new as it would not be profitable and would not give him or her the same sense of satisfaction, it would give them the opposite a sense of injustice. This is obviously not 'fair use' and rightly it is not condoned by governments and the film and music industry. This is the most important question which you should confront yourself with when you are in front of the Computer screen.
Fair Use is a good law but has been misinterpreted by millions thus causing even more widespread confusion. The two extremes or arguments are counterproductive as if you do not allow fair use at all nothing amazing or improved would be created. This would make the world boring and lifeless but on the other hand in a world where you could take anybodies work with no consequences you would see a similar result. Since there is no motive to create as at once people would take it for themselves.
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