When it comes to the legalities and legal constraints of the web, the fine line between suitable conduct and a copyright infringement appears blurred. Although being technically illegal, the reproduction of copyright information is present throughout the entirety of the internet. So why is this you ask? And is that okay? After the symposium this week I cannot provide answers to these questions. Pretend two of my tutors stand on opposite sides of the room for this analogy. In one ear I hear “any material that is protected by copyright is strictly forbidden from re-distribution or re-creation by any party other than the creator in the absence of permission FULL STOP!” and in the other ear I hear “there are many grey areas between the lines of copyright law and you need to learn how to work the grey areas to your advantage and not get caught”.

Okay so I’m getting mixed messages here, what do I do? This leads me to believe that the un-crossable lines of copyright law are not at all strictly defined, given the variety of opinions among media professionals regarding the matter. For this reason I conclude that each use of copyright material can only be deemed legal or illegal in a case by case situation. Therefore, given such leeway in combination with the common practice of creators sending ‘cease and desist’ letters to copyright criminals before taking legal action, this makes it very hard to scare me from posting others’ material without permission. However, luckily for the morality of the internet, as a creator I find it implausible to copy the work of others without permission given my work is available for others to do the same.

Although I did appreciate the comment one of the tutors made and I quote “it’s just like j walking, you just have to learn how to do it without getting caught and you’ll do it every day” – Jason Tseng

And I do j walk… so where’s the hope for poor little copyright law

All this talk of network literacy and our educator’s inclination to point out the general population of our class’ lack thereof, makes me wonder what my generation should be considered experts of in terms of methods of literacy. In regards to photography literacy, isn’t it interesting that high definition cameras are available in any smartphone, of which more than half the country’s population possess. Capable of capturing a photograph before viewing it immediately. However Vannevar Bush in 1945 is intrigued by the technology of film photography and seems perplexed by the idea that one day in the future, photographs will be able to be viewed immediately upon capture, without the aid of wetting the photograph or the timely process of developing film. Nowadays, such notion sound ridiculous due to the accessibility of digital cameras. Digital photography is a very new phenomenon, however it is a literacy known as ‘second nature’ to the vast majority of young people today. This leads me to consider new literacies as highly important for young people to learn in order to keep up with the ever changing reality that is the media world. Especially as someone seeking a career in the industry, I understand the importance of looking to the future of media and communication, eager to attain new literacies in order to stay ahead of the game.

Literacy, by definition is regarded as “competence or knowledge in a specified area”. Although often considered solely in reference to print (reading and writing), literacy can refer to one’s knowledge of almost any given subject matter or activity. Network literacy, as highlighted by Adrian Miles this week is the ability to participate and engage with knowledge networks. This has well and truly become embedded within internet culture. It is important to break down contemporary ‘taken for granted’ human activities, in order to understand the depths of such implicit knowledge. Basic instances such as recognising: types of media on the internet; the format of blogs or forums; hyperlinks; comment fields and tags are all necessary points to ponder upon in the discussion of network literacy as a term. Wondering off topic slightly, I really appreciate how both in writing and the symposiums, Adrian challenges many aspects of contemporary day to day life that we commonly accept as given parameters. For example, in the symposium in week 2, he hypothesised one’s ability to receive knowledge from a book by breaking down the practice into its basic qualities that we happily accept as a given. Thus, Adrian demonstrated the importance of evaluating network literacy in the same way.

It seems network literacy, in contrast to print literacy is heavily focused on the advantages of group participation and collaboration. The ability to easily comment on the work of others, share knowledge with one another in a flash and control how material is located, allows users to learn from each other and receive feedback in real time, 24/7. So to engage with such notions of the sharing process of network literacy (and to gather a couple of sneaky marks), here’s a shout out to Kenton Reeder, who’s blog you should definitely check out for a cynical giggle.

Stay tuned.

Nate