Wk1 Response to Jen Selix

Photo taken from Flickr with permission of creator.  Creator of photo is Mike Seyfang (Mike Blogs).

Jen's Original Post:

This week I discovered that there is much more to copyright law than I’ve ever truly known or understood. This is a bit frightening and shocking to me, being as that I have been working as a technical writer and media asset creator in the public sector for over ten years.

The biggest shock was discovering how little protection and legal support we have through Fair Use. I admit that I had a false sense of security in the past, from what I believed to be legally binding Fair Use principles. However, after watching, Eyes on the Fair Use of the prize, I discovered how little power we have. Not only are copyrights and rights of fair use convoluted and challenging to defend, we can lose the right to use media assets altogether if outlandish royalty fees are not met.

As a writer and consumer of media, it saddens me and makes me nervous for our cultural and societal history to know that money and bureaucracy have the power to constrain our right to knowledge.

I welcome your thoughts and comments.

- Jen 

My response:

I couldn't agree with you more.  Just when you think it will become clearer, you read or watch something else that makes it even more confusing.
I have heard so many different things over the years.  In fact, just last year I was trained by the technical "experts" in our school that we could use anything we wanted as long as it was 30 seconds or less.  Well after this week's readings, that is not accurate.
The real problem is that while everyone struggles to figure out what to do about this and how people can still make money, time is running out for some great material. It's a shame that it all comes down to money in the end... 


Jen's Blog
Above is the link to Jen's blog.  I highly encourage you to check it out, as she has some great insights and a super sense of humor!