Essay - Creative Commons and Copyright

Websites that license their products under a Creative Commons License (or copyleft as it is sometimes known) reach a wider range of people, as their products can be viewed for free and reproduced in other places (as long as they are properly referenced). Creative Commons is a not for profit organisation, established in Australia in 2004 (http://creativecommons.org.au/about/ccaustralia) that enables people to share their own work in ways that are less restricting that traditional copyright. Three examples of information available under Creative Commons are Wikipedia.org, xkcd.com and the online film Sita Sings the Blues. Financing these websites is usually made through donations and the selling of merchandise.

Creative Commons came about because copyright was not meeting the needs of the creator and the consumer. It gives the creator more control over the sharing of a product. It allows the consumer to have “more liberal use of your material, but only on certain conditions” (http://creativecommons.org.au/learn-more/licences). When something is copyrighted “anyone who wants to use someone else’s material in any of the following (Italics mine) ways generally needs permission” (http://designroyale.copyright.org.au/admin/cms-acc1/_images/1889836124c8dbfe7b2fba.pdf ): reproduction, making the work public, adapting the work or performing the work (http://designroyale.copyright.org.au/admin/cms-acc1/_images/1889836124c8dbfe7b2fba.pdf). Not all creators want so many restrictions on their works, for various reasons that will be highlighted in this essay. However using a Creative Commons license does not mean giving up all rights to your works, there are restrictions that you can add to the license so you “can mix and match … to create a license that defines exactly how you want your work to be used” (http://creativecommons.org.au/learn-more/licences). While there are many good things about a Creative Commons license there are some mediums where it is not ideal. When someone’s primary goal is capital, rather than sharing information, copyright is much more suitable. In the United States “copyright is one of the strongest net contributors to the nation’s balance of trade,” (Goldstein 1992, p. 79) so it is still a massive force in the information-sharing world.

Part of the larger Wikimedia Foundation, Wikipedia is “the most important application of the principles of the free and open-source software movement” (Rosenzweig 2006, page number unavailable). With over 3 million articles on topics ranging from philosophy to French Nails, it is arguably the most famous free encyclopaedia. The home page also has random facts and an ‘On this day…’ section. “Most text in Wikipedia, excluding quotations,” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:FAQ) is licensed under Creative Commons and a GNU Free Documentation License, enabling the reader to reproduce the work in their own blogs, assignments and websites. The freedom allowed through a Creative Commons is ensuring “the works continued availability to the public” (Heffan 1997, p.1487) and with its snowballing popularity Wikipedia had lead to over 167 million searches in December of 2009 (http://stats.grok.se/en/top). More people are allowed access to this information; therefore more people will use it. A Creative Commons license also suits this form of peer-created information, as there are multiple anonymous contributors who could attempt to claim royalties if people were paying for access to the information.

With over a billion internet users (Konieczny 2009, page number unavailable) it seems to make sense for your product to reach as many people as possible and with a Creative Commons license this can happen. XKCD is a humorous comic-strip website created by former physicist Randall Munroe, whose comics are often featured on personal pages on various social networking websites. Munroe allows his comics to be featured in books, blogs, newsletters and presentations (though he requests you ask for permission if it is a for-profit publication) (http://xkcd.com/license.html). This allows his product to reach people through the internet and through traditional forms of information sharing. Naturally, this brings a large amount of people to view and enjoy the websites product. XKCD, like the other two websites featured in this essay, uses very limited advertising. Their popularity is based on word of mouth and the publishing of their comics in other places. The ability of the company to do to gain recognition in this way would be restricted by traditional copyright, so a creative Commons License gives them many more options.

“The internet is a culture based on sharing colonised by a culture based on accumulating” (Ippolito, 2001). Nina Paley, the creator of Sita Sings the Blues aims to steer away from this mentality saying that “like all culture, it belongs to you already” (2009). It is a feature length online animated musical that is free for the consumer to “copy, share, publish, archive, show, sell, broadcast, or remix” (Paley, 2009). Paley, who adapted the Hindu story for modern audiences, is an advocate of copyleft licenses and claims that her “first concern is Art, and Art has no life if people can’t share it”. This quote reiterates the fact that when people are allowed to freely share information and entertainment online it will reach a wider amount of people. This film was not made with a high budget, so a Creative Commons license helps with the distribution of the film. If it was licensed under a copyright Paley would need to spend money on advertising and promotions in order to get the product out there; however under a Creative Commons license the viewers can spread word of the product by distributing the product itself.

While copyright is good for capital based products, a Creative Commons license is perfect for websites who want their product to reach everybody who uses the internet (and even people who do not). In today’s digital age information is so freely accessed online it seems to make sense not to fight information sharing, but to encourage it. Relying largely on donations and the sale of merchandise, Wikipedia, XKCD and Sita Sings the Blues have found success using Creative Commons licenses, and with their works always being free to the public the success will likely snowball.

REFERENCES:

Goldstein, P 1992 ‘Copyright and Legislation: The Kastenmeier Years’, Law and Contemporary Problems, vol. 55, no. 2, pp. 79 – 91. Viewed via JSTOR.

Heffan, I 1997 ‘Copyleft: Licensing Collaborative Works in the Digital Age’, Stanford Law Review, vol. 49, no. 6, pp. 1487 – 1521. Viewed via JSTOR.

Ippolito J, 2001 ‘Whatever Happened to the Gift Economy’, Leonardo, vol. 34, no. 2, pp. 159 – 160. Viewed via JSTOR.

Konieczny, P 2009 ‘Governance, Organization, and Democracy on the Internet: The Iron Law and the Evolution of Wikipedia’, Sociological Forum, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 162 – 192. Viewed via JSTOR.

Rosenzweig, R 2006 ‘Can History Be Open Source? Wikipedia and the Future of the Past’, The Journal Of American History, vol. 93, no.1, pp. 117 - 146. Viewed via JSTOR.

Wikipedia article traffic statistics 2009, viewed 12 October 2010, <http://stats.grok.se/en/top>

Wikipedia: FAQ 2010, viewed 12 October 2010, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:FAQ/>

Paley, N 2009, Sita Sings the Blues, viewed 10 October 2010 <http://www.sitasingstheblues.com/>

Paley, N 2009, Frequently Asked Questions, viewed 10 October 2010 <http://www.sitasingstheblues.com/faq.html>

Licences, W n.d., viewed 13 October 2010, <http://creativecommons.org.au/learn-more/licences>

License , W n.d., viewed 11 October 2010 <http://xkcd.com/license.html>

About, W n.d., viewed 11 October 2010 <http://xkcd.com/about/>

An Introduction to Copyright in Australia 2007, viewed 15 October 2010 <http://designroyale.copyright.org.au/admin/cms-acc1/_images/1889836124c8dbfe7b2fba.pdf>

About ccAustralia, W n.d., viewed 16 October 2010 <http://creativecommons.org.au/about/ccaustralia>

About, W n.d., viewed 16 October 2010 <http://creativecommons.org.au/about>

Week 10 - Lecture Response and Tute*Spark

Hi,

This weeks lecture was mostly about Facebook and the violation of privacy. It was brought to our attention that a young university student committed suicide after his roommates streamed a video of him having sex. The ridicule he suffered after his sexual orientation was broadcast to the world led to his suicide. The discrimination of gays and lesbians is still a major issue, and looking at movies you can see what. When people think of homosexual discrimination they immediately think of Brokeback Mountain, however the movie 'Alexander' starring Colin Farrell generated controversy when outing him as having multiple relationships with men. The film 'Troy' is also notable for the fact that the filmmaker left out the fact that Achilles was believed to be in a relationship with Patroclus (Information can be found here, there are other websites that have more reliable information, however they were blocked by Griffith).

The lecturer also discussed Facebook's relationship with the CIA, and how one of the major sponsors of it is In-Q-Tel. In-Q-Tel also works for the CIA, looking for technologies that could be useful to them. Facebook also records everything that you click on, and keeps it forever. Now I'm scared one day it'll be released and everyone will know how much of a stalker I am!

In the lecture we briefly touched on the idea of the internet filter. I don't like the idea of it, I can imagine how the censoring could snowball out of control. China doesn't have Facebook anymore, what if that happens to us too?

I found the lecturer quite eye opening and scary, but still it won't stop me using Facebook!

Thanks,

Emily

Week 10 - Evaluation

Hi,

This is my evaluation for New Communication Technologies. I'm not really sure how to set it out, but I guess I'll start with the lectures, and then with the assignments we were given over the semester.

The lectures were only an hour but they were always really packed with information. In the lectures I found that they often just chatted and used examples, but I couldn't really understand the lecture notes. The lectures didn't really get that much into the theory of the topic so I found it hard so get my head around the notes. The topics we learnt about this semester were challenging and I had never heard of most of them! I liked how I was familiar with a lot of the ideas, I just didn't know the terms used to describe them. I liked how they incorporated Plato's philosophies at a few different times throughout the semester (especially the allegory of the cave a couple weeks ago). I also liked how many of the topics we learnt about, like shot lengths and sizes, I could relate to historical films which is what I really wanted to focus on this semester. As the semester progressed we moved more into technology and science fiction so it became harder to do this.

Some of the assignments were really hard!! We had to find information about stuff I had no idea about, but it helped with my research skills I think. I like the idea of doing blogs instead of regular paper assignments, it's fun and I learnt a lot (before this course I was really not tech-savvy). I think it would have been better in the Tutes if the tutor talked about the lecture notes a little bit to help us get out heads around it. I liked how all the tutors and lecturers were young and know a lot about pop culture (My history lecturer said Bookface instead of Facebook once...). It was also handy when we were talking about Cyber Punk, any movie we would mention the lecturers and tutors would be familiar with.

I'm not really sure what else to say, this class has been fun and I've learnt way more than I ever thought I would. Some of the topics were a bit difficult and the only change I would recommend would be to have a bit more time in the Tutes for the tutor to go over the notes.

Thanks for a fun semester!

Emily

Week 9 - Tute Task

Hi,

This weeks Tute Task was to talk about our chosen essay topic, and how we might approach it.

Initially when I looked at the essay questions, it was so daunting! The questions looked so difficult, especially since before this course I wasn't familiar with most of the topics. I read over the topics a few times and started to get my head around each of them before I made my decision.

The essay topic I'm choosing to do is:

2. Explain what creative commons is and, using examples, show how it is different to other forms of copyright.

I chose this topic because the idea of a copyright has been around for a long time, so there will be a lot of information on it. When we learnt about creative commons the other week, I had no idea how strict copyright was and now I want to learn more about it.

Before I did this course I hadn't heard of creative commons so I thought it would be a good topic to explore.

I think I'm going to set out the essay with an introduction, four paragraphs and a conclusion. The first body paragraph will explain what creative commons is and what copyright is, this will be followed by three more paragraphs which will explain the difference between the two. I have a tendency to write A LOT in essays so hopefully I'll be able to reign it in and not get sidetracked.

That's pretty much everything I've been thinking about for this weeks Tute Task.

Thanks,

Emily

Week 9 - Lecture Response and Tute*Spark

Hi,

The lecture this week went deeper into the idea of Cyberpunk. It's part of the science fiction genre, though often it draws on he hard boiled crime fiction of the post WW2 era. I never thought about it in regards to Cyberpunk before but it's so true: The Running Man, 1984, Repo! The Genetic Opera and Oryx & Crake all have science fiction elements as well as elements of hard boiled fiction and film noir. The books and films of this genre have a real gritty aesthetic, and are often very existential. The stories are often told in fragments, rather than the long descriptive paragraphs commonly found in fantasy stories.

The stories often deal heavily in self-interest and have anti-heroes as protagonists, which is something found in hard boiled fiction. I think the film Repo! The Genetic Opera is a really good example of Cyberpunk. It's set in the future, where everything is controlled by a company that grows organs and you can rent them out in your body but if you fall behind on payments the Repo Man comes to collect it. The city is dark with lots of drugs, sex and crime. There is a drug found in the city the film is set in that eases pain when getting surgery (and since everyone gets plastic surgery, a lot of people become addicted). While many of the films topics discuss self-interest and lust, the film also discusses the ideas of the fear society and private corporations having too much power.

In both the Running Man and 1984 (which have both been made into films), I found similarities in the protagonists. They both were screwed around by the government and were disillusioned with the state of the world while everyone else seemed to be going with the flow. They tried in two different ways to become free, and it cost both of them their lives. In 1984 the government is the all powerful thing, and in the Running Man the media outlets are all powerful.

Oryx & Crake focuses on one character, a man who has given up on life and hides in a tree from predators. He believes he is the last real human on earth (Crake, before his death, had created a new species of 'perfect' human beings). He drinks alcohol and lies to the new species of humans to keep them content. Before the humans were wiped out, the world used genetic engineering and focused on commercialism. The world is full of lust, with heavy emphasis on child pornography and other taboo topics. The book focuses on the ethics of genetic engineering, the idea of living for eternity (if you don't know you're going to die one day, does that means you're invincible?) and the overall aesthetic has a feel of existentialism.

The main writers of Cyberpunk are: William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, Neal Stephenson, John Shirley, Lewis Shiner and Rudy Rucker. In the lecture we went into some detail about William Gibson, and talked about the trilogies he has written including the Bride Trilogy and the Blue Ant trilogy.

Cyberpunk is really interesting, and before this week I never knew I had read and seen so much of it.

This week there is no Tute*Spark.

Emily

Week 8 - Tute Task

Hi,

This weeks Tute Task we had to discuss a Cyber Punk film and then find a modern article to explore the similarities. The film and book I chose to do is '1984' originally written by George Orwell in 1949. It was made into a popular film in 1984. In the film there are cameras everywhere. They can see what you're doing, and quickly stop people who are doing anything the government disagrees with. I feel like this falls under the category of 'Corporate control over society.' Every house has a screen built into the wall that doubles as a camera. It plays propaganda 24/7, you can turn it down, but never off. A whole new dictionary has been created with dangerous words like 'protest' taken out of it, if the word doesn't exist how can people think it? Children are encouraged to turn in their parents for crimes against the state, and sex is designed to be purely for reproduction.

My own words are in red.

George Orwell, Big Brother is watching your house

George Orwell’s 1984 may not be as unlikely as we all thought. While North Korea and China have been compared to George Orwell’s totalitarian Britain before, signs of this political control are being seen in Western countries now.

The Big Brother nightmare of George Orwell's 1984 has become a reality - in the shadow of the author's former London home.

It may have taken a little longer than he predicted, but Orwell's vision of a society where cameras and computers spy on every person's movements is now here.

According to the latest studies, Britain has a staggering 4.2million CCTV cameras - one for every 14 people in the country - and 20 per cent of cameras globally. It has been calculated that each person is caught on camera an average of 300 times daily.

Use of spy cameras in modern-day Britain is now a chilling mirror image of Orwell's fictional world, created in the post-war Forties in a fourth-floor flat overlooking Canonbury Square in Islington, North London.

On the wall outside his former residence - flat number 27B - where Orwell lived until his death in 1950, an historical plaque commemorates the anti-authoritarian author. And within 200 yards of the flat, there are 32 CCTV cameras, scanning every move.

Orwell's view of the tree-filled gardens outside the flat is under 24-hour surveillance from two cameras perched on traffic lights.

The flat's rear windows are constantly viewed from two more security cameras outside a conference centre in Canonbury Place.

In a lane, just off the square, close to Orwell's favourite pub, the Compton Arms, a camera at the rear of a car dealership records every person entering or leaving the pub.

Within a 200-yard radius of the flat, there are another 28 CCTV cameras, together with hundreds of private, remote-controlled security cameras used to scrutinise visitors to homes, shops and offices.

If someone is photographed that often in a day, it’s over 12 times an hour! It’s a gross violation of privacy knowing that we could be filmed at our homes, grocery shopping or at the local pub. The watchers would know everything about us and our daily habits.

The message is reminiscent of a 1949 poster to mark the launch of Orwell's 1984: 'Big Brother is Watching You'.

In the Shriji grocery store in Canonbury Place, three cameras focus on every person in the shop. Owner Minesh Amin explained: 'They are for our security and safety. Without them, people would steal from the shop. Although this is a nice area, there are always bad people who cause trouble by stealing.'

With all this CCTV footage, our privacy is being invaded by those designed to protect us. How long until they put CCTV inside our houses to ‘protect us’? When will other measures be implemented to insure our safety and the safety of the country? Soon we’ll have a TV, compulsory in all homes, that plays propaganda 24/7 (the likes of which are already found in North Korea). Things develop slowly, but they snowball out of control and this will happen with the CCTV cameras in London.

Three doors away, in the dry-cleaning shop run by Malik Zafar, are another two CCTV cameras.

'I need to know who is coming into my shop,' explained Mr Zafar, who spent £400 on his security system.

This week, the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAE) produced a report highlighting the astonishing numbers of CCTV cameras in the country and warned how such 'Big Brother tactics' could eventually put lives at risk.

When the government can see everything we are doing, they are going to try and quell unrest at its source. They can use the cameras to weed out opinions and ideas they don’t like, just like in 1984.

The RAE report warned any security system was 'vulnerable to abuse, including bribery of staff and computer hackers gaining access to it'. One of the report's authors, Professor Nigel Gilbert, claimed the numbers of CCTV cameras now being used is so vast that further installations should be stopped until the need for them is proven.

One fear is a nationwide standard for CCTV cameras which would make it possible for all information gathered by individual cameras to be shared - and accessed by anyone with the means to do so.

The RAE report follows a warning by the Government's Information Commissioner Richard Thomas that excessive use of CCTV and other information-gathering was 'creating a climate of suspicion'.

This idea of a ‘climate of suspicion’ naturally leads to fear, and more government control. At the rate Britain is deteriorating 1984 could be a reality in the next forty years. Forty years ago you didn’t even need a transport to travel to and from the country, now the government is controlling so heavily the traffic and trade of the country it will soon be cut off from the rest of the world. This will lead to people in Britain having to be totally self-reliant in order to survive. The government will use the CCTV cameras to ensure everyone does their part and there are no uprisings.

It’s a clear spiral that is inevitable- the British government already has the cogs in place to create a machine that they are in ultimate control over.

Only time will tell if George Orwell’s shocking predictions come true.

The original news article can be found here:
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23391081-george-orwell-big-brother-is-watching-your-house.do

Week 8 - Lecture Response and Tute*Spark

Hi,

This weeks lecture was on virtual philosophy and virtual reality. The lecturer mentioned the 'Allegory of the Cave' by Plato, which was something I studied last semester. I never realized I could relate it to modern times.

This Cave could be compared to The Matrix, where humans believe they are living in reality and seeing things that are real, when really they are in the dark. Would we care if this happened to us? If the world was as bad as it is in the Matrix, I don't think I would want to be woken up!

In the lecture, we discussed how the 'real world' or how we perceive it are just electrical impulses in the brain. Perceptions are just as important as reality.

Virtual reality started with telegraph, a way to replicate real life conversation and words through sounds. Television shows and films are forms of virtual reality, replicating real people and real situations to make a totally different reality. Sometimes the people are made up, and sometimes they are not. When a filmmaker creates a film based on historical events, he or she creates their own virtual reality which viewers may take as fact. This can be seen in the 2004 film King Arthur, starring Keira Knightley. Many aspects of the film were made up, and I began to believe what I saw was the real legend of King Arthur.

Virtual reality in gaming comes in three forms: Desktop VR, Immersion VR, and Projection VR. Desktop VR is when the game on your computer is three dimensional, Immersion VR is when you wear a head piece that covers your eyes and you can see into the virtual reality, Projection VR is when something it "projected into extended space", like a hologram. The different forms of VR are used in a variety of areas including: entertainment, military training, and town planning. However there are some harmful side effects including simulation sickness, dizziness and eyestrain.

The lecture this week was complicated and slightly hard for me to get my head around, but the reference to Plato's 'Republic' helped clear things up a bit. We are all looking at the shadows reflected on the cave wall instead of turning towards reality and seeing the things making the shadows.

The Tute*Spark for this week was to describe and discuss Cyber Punk. Lauren directed us towards Wikipedia so get our information.

Cyber Punk works are works of fiction normally set in the near future, with protagonists resembling Robin Hood. Some people believe Cyber Punk stories are predicting the future of the Internet and technology as it develops further and could possible gain more control over our society. Popular examples of Cyber Punk fiction and films include: Oryx & Crake, 1984, The Terminator, Blade Runner, The Matrix and I Am Legend. In books like Oryx & Crake and 1984, parallels can already be seen in today's experiments and world (growing of organs for humans, propaganda radios in North Korea that can not be turned off, etc.). These stories are designed to get people to take action against things the government is doing now that could one day ruin our society. I never knew what Cyber Punk was, I always thought the movies and books I mentioned above were just weird science fiction movies. I think Oryx & Crake is one exception; after I read it I had so many questions about the future of earth.

That's pretty much everything I've thought regarding this weeks lecture and Tute*Spark.

Thanks,

Emily