The Importance of Copyright

One thing I noticed about the reading for this blog post was that it was written by a high school student...

Anyway, copyright is very important. Without it, proper credit would never be given to the appropriate individuals who created, invented, wrote, composed or in other words produced a piece of work. In order to be protected under copyright laws, the work must be able to be "perceived, produced or otherwise communicated, either directly or with the aid of a machine or device."

I had heard about "fair use" before, but I never really understood what is meant. According to the reading, a provision of the copyright Act called Fair Use limits the copyright holder's rights in order to promote free speech and learning."

I had always associated plagiarism with copyright, but never knew that the two terms can be confused with each other. Interestingly enough, copyright law "applies mainly to the economic loss incurred due to an infringement." In comparison, plagiarism is "a crime against ethics." Teachers warn of plagiarism, as does the university, of a misrepresentation of work, or no credit where credit is due.

Also included are a list of limitations for multimedia applications:
1. Time
2. Portion
3. Motion Media
4. Text Material
5. Music, Lyrics and music videos
6. Illustrations and Photographs
7. Data sets
8. Copy and distribution

Ironically enough, although it is an example, the piece of writing properly sites her sources of information.
 I also noted this at the top: "*Permission is granted to 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 to assume you did not have permission to copy it. This document is still protected by you-know- what even though it has no copyright notice."