Life in the Network

After reading all of the articles on copywriting, I received a huge headache because of so many different steps I should say that one has to follow in order to be able to use someone else’s picture or “idea” either on a website, research paper, or other types of media. I thought it was interesting that the short movie “Creative Commons: Get Creative” stated that as soon as your pick up your pencil from a cocktail napkin, you own those dootles. When reflecting about that statement, I always assumed that it was “your napkin” but for a case to happen in order for the copyright company to have to determine that, boggles my mind. What was so important on that napkin, in which you had to make a law stating that it was yours?

Like every teacher, many of them tell us that you can use other peoples work as long as you give them credit where credit is deserved. For the most part, in all papers, we all know that you take a quote from someone, you obviously do not get into contact with the specific person who wrote that, because at times it would be nearly impossible, so instead you cite where you found the information and the details of the specific article, paper, or picture.

When I was reading about “mashups”, it reminded me of one of my favorite artists from when I was younger, Vanilla Ice. I remember there was a big to do because one of his beats that he took for his hit single “Ice, Ice Baby” had his background sound very similar to another beat from another artist. However, he never got sued because he added ONE extra beat to the rhythm therefore making it his own. It is a really horrible position to be in when you are the underdog, but I feel as though there is nothing that you can do except to get over it because most of the times they DID change it, but many times it is ever so slightly, but it is enough for them to claim it their own. When watching the movie, “Creative Commons: Get Creative” if The White Stripes did not give verbal consent like they supposedly did, I do not feel as though it was right because the new band clearly took vocals from the original band.

It is very hard to put a copyright on an idea. With many other copyrights such as medicine or products, there is a tangible item that the companies can say they own that particular item. However, with ideas it is very hard to copyright that. I personally, have a peer of mine trying to copyright a method of marketing and is in the process of formally copyrighting it and talking with Apple and other big corporations to see if it would work which is very interesting to hear what the process is that he has to go through in order to successfully copyright and patent his idea.