Copyright, IP, Plug-in’s and Online Identity.

COPYRIGHT AND IP: WHY IS IT SO IMPORTANT?

licensed under public domain: Adobe Stock 

The act of copyright allows people to have protection when creating something, whether this is a literary work, a play or a blog like mine. In Australia, we are lucky enough to be automatically protected by copyright. By purchasing a Creative Commons License, individuals can show what part of their work is free to use and how individuals can distribute it, both online and offline.

Examples of Creative Commons Elements include:

• BY (Attribution: Acknowledgement of an individual)
• NC (No Commission: No one can make commission or sales off the product)
• ND (Change or Alterations of the work are not allowed)
• SA (Creative Commons shared, the same terms apply to the work when it is shared)

BY and BY/SA offer the most freedom for the licensee and BY/NC/ND + BY/NC/SA offer the least amount of creative freedom with the other individuals work for the licensee.

You can obtain copyright for all types of works, including “non-works” such as broadcasting and sound. Most works will have two types of copyright attached to it – take film, for example, there are both sound copyrights (or music) as well as the literary work itself. In Australia, copyright lasts for the lifetime of the author plus 70 calendar years – hence why many schools choose Shakespeare’s plays to perform as the copyright fee is lower than one that would be currently performed on broadway.

The downfall of copyright, however, is that it does not protect ideas or information – so if you think of the next version of google or twitter, you better lock it down!

PLUG-INS

Plug-in’s are almost like an ‘add on’ for your blog. Plug-in’s allow you to control security, such as Askimet. I decided to add a table of contents for my blog, to make it easier to read and give my readers ease of access. During our seminar for this week, we learnt about online security and plug-ins that can protect your accounts from spam, hate comments and the like. Although our blogs are directed to those in the course of Communications, it is open to the public, which we often forget.

     ONLINE SECURITY AND CREATING A SAFE ONLINE PRESENCE

In technology, you have to remind yourself about the privacy online – not only is your online presence out there forever but there are legal boundaries towards this. It is important that you not only harness your comments, but watch what you post online (no one likes haters!). Some of these include defamatory content, intentionally false or misleading posts or abusive/offensive topics.

You can help yourself avoid not only spam (trying to sell things like drugs, weight-loss pills or pornography for example) but also protect your own online presence. Other things include malicious emails that can potentially flow in viruses into your computer; stealing bank account information, passwords or the like. An example of this is signing a form at school, when using technology to maintain the privacy of others. I think creating an online space is very important for your ideas to be taken seriously – thus, everyone reading your blog can interact at an even level.