Own Your Creativity - Copyright Blog

I learned several things from Mr. Hardin about copyright issues. His insight and information opened my eyes to many things. One thing that specifically interested me was the Creative Commons website. Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization that seeks to provide an alternative method of getting a copyright than the traditional Title 17 method. Creative Commons came up with a series of licenses that are strongly protected and defensible in court. The creator, author, choreographer, or musician can easily get any type of licence for their work that they desire. This organization has the most affect on the copyright culture today.

One issue that I found intriguing regarding Creative Commons is how to handle copyright issues from a research or academic viewpoint. This is a tough situation because it deals with the reproduction of someone's work. To try and discern whether it is acceptable to use something for academic purposes of research, reading, or writing, one has to look at the four factors of determining Fair Use. These are looking at the nature of the work, purpose of reproduction, amount reproduced, and the affect the reproduction will have on the right holders' monetary profit. I personally would be fine with a student using large portions of a book I had written in my field of expertise for academic reasons, only if they cited that the original work was from me. This topic is very sensitive and I am very grateful that I got to learn about my rights and about the laws of copyright from Mr. Hardin.