So the readings for this week were based around the concept of copyright and ‘Creative Commons’ licensing, which to be honest, gave me horrible flashbacks to the written component of my year 12 studio arts exam.
After scrolling through the Creative Commons website and waiting 10 minutes for the YouTube video to load (my internet is beyond slow this week) I was a little confused. Have I been breaking the law online?
I’m probably not alone in saying that when I post pictures online (or use them in class power points etc.) I quite often neglect to mention where I sourced the images from. Although I was taught alllllll about copyright laws in school, I still maintained the mindset that if its on the internet, its free for me to use, right?
Well, no.
To be honest again, although I now understand that accreditation is very important when blogging (I went back and listed the sources of the images used in my previous posts, phew), the multitude of different Creative Commons licenses still confuses me. How do we check if the owner of the image has a Creative Commons licence? Or which ones affect me?
Also what about social media platforms such as Tumblr or Instagram? Does posting or re-blogging images with no accreditation violate copyright laws?
Needless to say, I don’t plan on receiving a cease and desist letter for defamation or copyright infringement on this blog. SOS.
– Caitlin
*Image sourced from tumblr.com*
(But it is a Paul Signac oil painting … BUT he died 70+ years ago … still confused)
