Ethics of Privacy

Copyright ethics

What is a Copyright?

The definition of a Copyright is the right for the creator to hold their licencing terms. For example; If one were to sketch an idea for a logo on a piece of paper - as soon as the drawing had been completed the artist who created that work would hold the rights to it, i.e. meaning that under section 107 of the U.S Office Copyright laws nobody would be able to use or recreate that image for 70 years after the creators death.

What are the 3 moral rights?

• The right of attribution - Whoever has created the work has the right to be identified and credited as such. Where the work is used/shown/displayed in a performance or otherwise, then it is the right of the creator to be recognised for their work.

• The right of integrity - The work is not allowed to be modified or changed in any way without the consent of the creator/copyright holder. This is to protect the creator, by only allowing the works to be shown/used in a manner that they see fit. A musician may allow a sample of their song to be used in some situations, but not others. For example, a release may be granted for a sample to be used within a commercial advertisement, but not in another song by a different artist, or vice-versa.

• False attribution - No one is allowed to use the works and make any attempt to pass it off as their own works. This protects the creator by allowing them to have the recognition deserved to them, and is to stop others from effectively 'stealing' and claiming ownership of their creative works.

How might copyright affect you and your work with interactive media?

The interactive media section requires many assets for production in websites; games; videos; music; pictures and films etc. And the easiest way to acquire these is through an internet search such as ‘Google’, but what most people do not realise is that most of the images, videos and music are copyrighted. This puts a seal on them so that if they are used publicly the owner is liable to prosecute. If a copyrighted product is used on a website for example, it may be possible to contact the owner of the image and seek permission to use it, it is a misapprehension to many that copyrighted assets are off limits but in some circumstances the owner will give permission for the images etc. to be re-used or altered for production in other things. Although the likeliness of being granted permission to re-use the ‘Coca-Cola’ logo would be very steep – minor esteemed images from lesser known producers would be more likely to be grant permission.

4. Do you think illegal downloading is morally right or wrong? Justify your position.

Respectfully illegal downloading is ethically incorrect because it doesn’t not credit the owners for their products, but I can say from my own experience that it has been made so easy to do that it has become a norm amongst everybody I know, there is a plus side to illegal downloading – being on an interactive media course the Adobe media suite is a must and I would not be able to afford the cost for the software to complete most of my coursework at home. With a few click I was able to download the software and get working. On some levels certain people would agree that I have used it for the right reasons but it still falls into me being in the

wrong. The major reasons that the law is trying to knuckle down on this is because film producers are losing a large profit margin from illegal film sharing. One way that I could see a workaround, and a possible convincer for the illegal downloaders to stop would be to develop the video rental business, in this day and age this possibility is becoming a larger reality everyday with the introduction of ‘Love Film’ and direct video rentals to the users television. (Google TV).

5. What does Creative Commons do?

Creative Commons is like the middleman of copyrighting. It allows developers of graphics, pictures etc. to be more precise about the ways in which their works can, or can't be used. It allows the creators to make their own copyright rules for their work. For example; the creator of a piece of work may grant permission for anyone to modify as long as they feature the unique author; on some works the permission will allow anyone to adapt/change it and once altered can be attributed to the person who has transformed the work, without crediting the original creator. Other authorisations allow the commercial/ non-commercial use or what countries the law applies to, for example an image may be able to be re-created in America but not in Canada.

6. Use an image from Creative Commons in your blog correctly

Here is a photo I have attached from Flickr. Courtesy of TAKA@P.P.R.S

(From the Creative Commons search filter)

The producer of this image has stated some Creative Commons conditions.

Attribution — You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).

Share Alike — If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under the same or similar license to this one.

7. Give your opinion on the way that total freedom from copyright might affect our culture

Having the freedom to alter any piece work would induce far more creativity in the world because people would have a starting place to begin some of their work. Having this possibility of sharing work would advance the production techniques of music; films; games and graphics etc. For example if two game companies were to create two completely separate platforms - but to achieve a higher standard of gameplay they needed code from each other, they would be able to share the information and possibly combine to produce one sole game or two separate fully capable game that function accurately. With the copyright laws both companies restrict their sources so only people on the team would be able to view it. Unlocking the restrictions would allow for greater possibilities.

The down side to all of this is that there would be many duplicates and low quality products from people who do not have the expertise behind them, making it hard to find originals and well produced creations. Copyright laws were introduced to protect authors, thus to stop other people from copying and producing original work claiming it as their own, although again this would suffocate the imagination for other people, for example; if someone had re-created and image and applied their own uniqueness to it that turned out to be a success they would not be able to advertise this unless given access by the original author through the Creative Commons guide.