After going through the reading I have mixed emotions about how I feel about copyright and the best practice for creatives in the online community. I am reminded of Noam's screaming photos, the guy who took some photos of himself screaming and they were used all around the world without his permission. He posted them on flicker and they were used by corporations, non-profits, artists and many more. He had no idea his photos were being used so often and the most shocking part was that many claimed ownership of the photos, which wasn't so. That leads me to always question if the person getting credit in the first place is the rightful owner. I don't think that copyright on the internet is an easy issue to deal with and I don't know for sure how I feel about it morally. I think that if you post something online in a manner that leaves it un-copyrighted, or open to use that you are sort of getting what you asked for if someone uses it without your permission. I know that there are ways to make your images "un-drag and drop-able," copyrights can be posted next to the images and the xiff data can link copyright information to it. For photographers and artists, making deals with stock image companies like istockphoto is a great way to protect your stuff and make money off of it. But when it comes to things like flikr and facebook or other social media applications I feel that when you take that step to put your material online you are taking that risk. I think that creative commons has a great thing going to provide a place for people to share their media, and to allow those who need to use media to have a resource. I know that working in education there is always a need for media to use in all sorts of mashup type projects. Creative commons gives education a safe way to do that. However, I have to say that maybe I am not well versed in how to use cc, or I am just spoiled by google image search, but I rarely find good images or search results that cater to what I am looking for when I use cc. Maybe that is the heart of the issue, more people don't see the good that cc is trying to accomplish and therefore the selection of acceptable use images and other media is very slim. I don't think this issue is even beginning to run its course and come to a healthy conclusion for all those who are involved but all the more reason to talk about it and raise awareness to the concepts it carries.
One thing that I've learned is that you have to have a really big pool of media to work with if you are going to find what you're looking for. The difference between Youtube and Teachertube is that with Youtube being so much bigger and pretty much universal it's much easier to find what you are looking for and at a higher quality than teachertube. So for CC to work it really requires that a lot of folks participate. When I start a search I began in flickr.com/creativecommons, that way, whatever I find i know will be creative commons. That's way less frustrating than finding a perfect image and then having to chase down someone to confirm the rights. Ack.
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