copyright and fair use: what do they mean vis-a-vis the internet?

  • i saved lots of pictures of the katrina victms of new orleans and i had intended to use them as visual aid on my blog. like they say, ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’. i have not yet investigated what it means to post pictures that someone else took but that i found appealing enough that i copied and saved them for future use.

    the same question i would like to ask regarding playing background music using a track that i paid for.

    i am not that naive to assume that whatever is out there on the net if for the taking. but how else can i write stories about distant lands without depending on photoes that are readily available on the net.

Viewing 2 replies - 16 through 17 (of 17 total)

  • lhk, Thanks for highlighting the current legal situation.

    … You will be anyway the moment someone rips and uses material from you which you yourself created, wish to sell and find strewn all over the internet without even correctly attributing it and under these circumstances suffering quite some financial and other loss.

    Nearly all of the work I have done belongs to private companies. Outside the companies, none of the work was ever attributed to me, because it belonged to my employer and it was their product. I never had any say over how it was marketed, licensed and distributed – I have strong suspicions that they spent more on these marketing and legal costs than they did on us, the actual developers/artists. Also, due to the prohibitively high price of the software we created, many people where prevented from using it. Some of the software was capable of aiding medical diagnosis and could have saved lives.

    I would really be more than happy for my work to be freely distributed across the web, but I can’t because I was coerced into signing away copyright. I would be even happier if I could share my code with other people, and we could all benefit from each others’ experience.

    Unfortunately it’s nigh-on impossible to earn a living wage developing free and open source software. Perhaps the situation would be different if the software “industry” wasn’t propped up by these copyright laws that enable them to deprive people of their freedoms.

    … do you think it would be of no effect at all, if the copyright of the Coke bottle was widely used by anyone from Pepsi to the streetvendor?

    I’m not especially bothered by the shape and style of coke bottles, but perhaps it would be good to see the end of those wretched brainwashing commercials.

    I think the abolition of copyright (or at least a better compromise than the situation we have at present) would transform society for the better. We would need to find new ways to fund creative works, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

    Hi again,

    you earned money on that job, que no? No one twisted your arm to take it. There are many freelancers (have a look at e.g. tufat.com) out there making a living out of their own software, many designers (like me) not in a plushy company job, who also work on their own, there are authors galore who write solitarily in their flats, and not for People Magazine, etc etc.

    This is a non-argument. If you wanted to have the hand on your work, then you gotta take that risk too. You didn’t, that’s your choice, but then don’t moan about it and try to base shady assumptions and justifications on such a very personal choice.

    The moment we have a worldwide base income on pure existence alone, we can discuss the ethics of copyright laws again. Until then no one should scream when found out to be on the wrong side of law.

Viewing 2 replies - 16 through 17 (of 17 total)
  • The topic ‘copyright and fair use: what do they mean vis-a-vis the internet?’ is closed to new replies.