PPP Seminar: Internet Use and Copyright

This week was amongst the most important of all PPP presentations regarding how one can protect his/her own content from being stolen as an intellectual property or how one goes around the possible violations of the same concept. Personally, this is the most useful PPP presentation so far hence `i have never quite fully understood the parameters of copyright and have seen countless European and American cases where such infringements have been punitively assessed, most of which where about music or art. Luckily, in the UK any content produced is automatically copyrighted, which eliminates the necessity to register one's content for fear of plagiarism.

Subjected to Copyright:
An author or individual should not adapt, distribute, publicly transmit or perform, rent, or even lend content without consulting the respective copyright laws to said piece of work/content. As for who owns copyright, from the presentation I understood that it is the author or the company/agency that publishes the piece. Luckily, for educational purposes copyright applies without permission (given that the educational establishment is in compliance with some form of legal document/contract, like one needed for a library). I had been afraid of violating copyright in any shape or form for my next COP animation which shall feature names of brands, a super copyright double-whammy.

Alternatives to Copyright:
I had never heard of any alternatives to copyright prior, and was always thinking that every individual, like it or not (especially in the UK) is subjected to copyright in some way for his/her own personal content.

Copyleft - A form of licensing that gives a right to redistribute, adapt, or reproduce a piece of work. The main concept of Copyleft had been described by Richard Stallman in his "GNU Manifesto", where he had said that "GNU is the public domain". Upon further research of this notion, I found out that Copyleft has several lawfully identified levels of licensing that all differ in the magnitude of the restriction, ranging from Freedom 0 to Freedom 3:

Freedom 0 - Piece of work can be used
Freedom 1 - Piece of work can be studied
Freedom 2 - Piece of work can be shared with others
Freedom 3 - Piece of work can be modified and distribute altered such versions

Creative Commons - a versatile and liberating license of intellectual property and content that provides simplicity and standardization. Founded by Lawrence Lessig as a non-profit organization, Creative Commons is a more established set of licensing which has an official website which assists aspiring creators in licensing their work under their free regulations and allows them to expand their creative works. As does Copyleft, so does Creative Commons carry levels of licensing which give the artist a choice of how he/she wishes to disseminate hers/his work, all written down on their official website (link at bottom of blog entry). As my research continued, I found that artists such as Nine Inch Nails use delineations of Creative Commons so that they may sell their music without having to compete with others selling copies of the same work. Thus, for my personal animations (non-educational) I will be using Creative Commons as it appeals to me the most in both freedom and liability.

Sources:
"What is Copyleft? - GNU Project" - http://www.gnu.org/licenses/copyleft.en.html
"Creative Commons" - https://creativecommons.org