Life in the Network

Before watching the Creative Commons video, I had no idea that once a work is created and finished, it is automatically copyrighted. I thought that the only way that something can be copyrighted was if it had the "c" symbol. In relation to intellectual property rights and re-use of images as well as any other kind of information, I think that everything needs to be cited. Since we have new laws that say that any work that is finished is automatically copyrighted, we need to respect the creator of the information or image and cite where we took our information from. People shouldn't claim other people's work as their own, that's stealing. As far as music downloading is concerned, I think that it shouldn't be free unless the artist intended the music to be free. I think that people should be paid for their craft. I think that we should keep paying for music according to the old model of physically purchasing it.

The work that is collaboratively placed online such as on Wikipedia should also be copyrighted. The fact that many people wrote on one page does not mean that those people do not own their words. If someone else wants to come in and use their information, they need to say the general cite on which they got their information, since the individual authors are not listed.

I don't think that just because a work is placed online that it should be ripped off. The problem right now is that people are making a transition from taking information from physical literary sources to intangible online cites. "Books froze their contents into a condition which was as challenging to alter as it was to reproduce. Counterfeiting and distributing counterfeit volumes were obvious and visible activities - it was easy enough to catch somebody in the act of doing." (Barlow) The problem with online articles, music, and images is that it is so easy to just cut and paste, or download information without paying for it or citing it. "Unlike unbounded words or images, books had material surfaces to which one could attach copyright notices, publisher's marques, and price tags." (Barlow) I think that the Creative Commons' "cc" idea is a very good step forward in figuring out how to copyright online information. Users can easily identify the information that the website creator or whoever wanted the users to use the information that they provide. I think that we're in a transitional place in figuring out how to properly copyright online information and let the users know what information they can take, and that with time, we'll be able to set up new policies that regulate this process.