Research and provide short answers to the following questions. Provide references where applicable.
1. What is creative commons and how could this licensing framework be relevant to your own experience at university?
2. Find 3 examples of works created by creative commons and embed them in your blog.
3. Find an academic article which discusses creative commons using a database or online journal. Provide a link to and a summary of the article.
4. Have a look at Portable Apps (a pc based application) – provide a brief description of what it is and how you think this is useful.
Answers:
1) Creative Commons
"Creative Commons is an international non-profit that provides free licenses and tools that copyright owners can use to allow others to share, reuse and remix their material, legally (about, Creative Commons Australia, viewed 10/09/10, http://creativecommons.org.au/about)."
Our culture is always build upon the creations already exist. There is no true original creations in the world, as we are all influenced by others. Copyright is first appeared in Britain in the fifteenth century when Gutenberg invented the technology of printing press (The Law - Where did copyright come from?, Website Copyright, viewed 10/09/10, http://www.benedict.com/Info/Law/History.aspx). However, the copyright started creating the very restrict permission culture in this fifty years. Lawrence Lessig started Creative Commons in 2003 to promote reasonable copyright, such as 'some rights reserved', rather than 'all rights reserved' (Muir, A., 2010, week 7 lecture, Griffith University, Gold Coast).
I am studying some art related subject, and I had to do some appropriating exercises. Appropriating art works requires very creative process, as it highlights the difference and the similarity and make the messages stronger. You cannot just copy the original art work, and you really have to try to capture the essence of original message and transform it into something different form.
I agree that we need the copyright, and I would hate to see that someone else uses my photograph I took sells and makes a lot of money. However, we need to have reasonable copyright, instead of smother all the creative world. If we are not allowed to appropriate any existing art work because of the copyright restriction, it is really killing some new creations.
Creative Commons is established to solve this problem. It is great idea to share some cultural creations reasonably. I can utilise this license uploading my photos I take for photojournalism subjects, and I can also mash up someone else's images for art related subjects.
2) 3 works created by Creative Commons License
As a student of Photojournalism, I am always interested in photo related art works. I found these three as Creative Commons examples.
Gold Coast Photos, Gold Coast Info
(viewed 10/9/10, http://www.goldcoastinfo.net/photos/main.php)
When I am making a website or blog, I often wish I had a good scenery photo of the Gold Coast as information where we are from. I used to be able to use the photos from Tourism Queensland website as my business I used to run paid a membership for a while, but I was always looking for copyright free good quality Gold Coast photos. Now I found this good website, Gold Cost Photos from Gold Coast Info.
This Gold Coast Photos have 504 beautiful photos under Creative Commons license. All you have to do is attribute their name with the photos. Isn' that great?!
(photos: Gold Coast Photos, Gold Coast Info, http://www.goldcoastinfo.net/photos/main.php)
Music Video Using Flickr Images - I'll Be Back This Summer
This music video is created by using all photos from Flickr under Creative Commons licenses. They are beautiful photos, and nice catchy music. We can definitely enjoy those photos in different way from what they are originally. It is a simple good example how artists can take an advantage of Creative Commons.
Urban Dirty - Free texture photos for your artwork, designs & desktops
(viewed 10/9/10, http://urbandirty.com/)
This is a website that provides free photos and images for your desktops etc. He has 771 photos in his gallery. I always like the texture photos as they are so handy. I can use them as background of blogs, websites and my artworks. These photos are all licensed under Creative Commons.
(photos: Urban Dirty, http://urbandirty.com/)
4) Academic Article
For the common good?
This article argues both positive and negative impact regarding Creative Commons. An innovative movement of copyright licensing started by Creative Commons is spreading globally. Wired magazine created a CD in 2004 using Creative Commons license with sixteen professional musicians such as David Byrne, Beastie Boys and Chck D. However, some industry leaders say there is a concern that it can "erode copyright protection or harm unwitting artists (Butler, S. 2005)". Creative Commons supporter Tina O'Reilly points out that a very small percentage of high value works smother all other art works with current restricted copyright law. Abelson from MIT says that it is scary to lock up all science with copyright. However, young artists can easily make a wrong choice by giving away his copyright while the first work is often the best of their work, and he may never repeat that quality. Although it is great to provide a legal copyright tool to everyday people as they do not have to get expensive legal advice, giving this legal tools upfront can result no recourse if something goes wrong.
(Butler, S. 2005, For the Common Good?, Billboard, New York: May 28, 2005. Vol. 117, Iss. 22; pg. 24, http://proquest.umi.com.libraryproxy.griffith.edu.au/pqdweb?index=111&did=847235311&SrchMode=1&sid=1&Fmt=4&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1285053589&clientId=13713)
5) Portable Apps
To tell the truth, I didn't know anything about portable applications until now. I googled this word, and was amazed how handy it is. The software you can use from your portable device such as USB driver or iPod, and you don't have to bother downloading the software to all different computers you use, anytime, anywhere. What a great idea! However, I tried to find any apps that I want to use and I looked through probably 10 pages or more, but still I could not find the one I really wanted to download. I always feel inconvenient that I cannot use Photoshops and Adobe Bridge on computers at uni (except for a digital dark room only limited students can use), so I would love to have portable apps of those two programs. I found Gimp and Picassa apps, but no Adobe software. They must be too protective about their software as they are the cash cows. Gimp and Picassa are good programs, but not good enough for photojournalism courses.
I found one program after looking through almost all search results on the first page of Google search. This program is called Date Reminder. It is a very simple software which gives us a reminder of birthday, bill payment or any recurring/non recurring events. (Horst Schaeffer's Windows Pages, viewed
10/9/10, http://home.mnet-online.de/horst.muc/wrem.htm)It is a great idea if I can get a reminder on any pc I use. I often forget the due date of credit card payment, and I am terrible to remember friend's birthdays as well. I was wondering if I should use the reminder service which I can receive by email, but this Date Reminder software is much better. The email reminder is good, but you never know until you open the mail browser. I often feel like I don't want to see any email, and I want to feel free from the crazy communication addictive world, and then I must miss the reminder. If I can get the reminder while whatever I am doing on a computer at university or home, it's great! However, the design of this program is a little bit too simple, and it looks boring. If this is presented with cool design and colours, it must become a very very popular software.
This is all for today. Cheers!
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