I can copy, right?…Wrong.

It’s hard to believe that there was once a time where anyone could claim ownership of another individuals work. You had no protection over your own work, and everyone was free to share, copy and reproduce without penalty or punishment.

This is a world I have never known, and will never know. Instead I have grown up in the complete opposite; where somehow the Terms and Conditions I frequently click yes to without hesitation can potentially sign the data away I produce, forever.

The introduction of Copyright laws has completely altered what we as the consumer can and can’t do. and subsequently changed the way in which we interact with information.

Understanding Copyright laws is confusing, and lengthy, probably why I click yes to the Terms and Conditions without reading what I am selecting yes to..

The public domain is basically where anything not under copyright law can be retrieved, copied, and re-distributed as either ‘original content’ or an ‘altered piece of original work’. Anything outside the public domain will generally fall under copyright law; therefore it is owned and controlled by whoever holds the rights to the work. However with the digital world we live in, enforcing copyright laws is incredibly problematic, and these laws are violated everyday.

‘The internet imposes no barriers to entry, no economics of scale, no limits on supply’ (Shirky, Clay)

References:

Information sourced from Teodor Mitew, BCM112 Lecture 16/03/15

Image sourced from Google Images – http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/90/Simbolo_C.jpg