Fair Use Online

Author: John D. Thomas

Date: November 5, 2012
Link: https://www.digitalethics.org/essays/fair-use-online

First Impressions: The essay probably talks about the fair use different content online such as photos, videos, and other kinds of media.

Quote: “In the early days of the Internet, it was not uncommon for people to use the full text of someone else's content, but credit the source, and consider that fair.”

Reflection:

There have been many scenarios where in people online do not observe the use of Fair Use. Other than news sites or blogs, Fair Use is also very popular in the YouTube industry wherein people use soundtracks they find online without even paying or crediting the creator of the soundtrack. As a result of their actions, There are times when the video is taken down due to copyright infringement as a result of their actions, and times when the channel is banned. Generally it depends on the channel frequency of copyrighted content. They often cite the source of the material that they copied correctly, but the issue was that the source also copied their sound track from another source that is not the original. I think there are cases where in fair use is fair. One good example is when singing a popular song by an artist like Despacito in a mall, it is fair use if you do not charge people for singing something that is not even yours, but it is not fair use if you are charging people for it. If only there was a way for people to stop copying each others content online and remain original or people knowing how fair use, citation, and the risk of copying others content then fair use would be fair.

5 Things I Learned

1. I learned that fair use and aggregation are two very pivotal forces driving digital content strategies.

2. I learned that I can not just get a photo from Google Images and use it for my work.

3. I learned that without proper citation of borrowed image, one could get in trouble for using the image.

4. I learned that once you are caught using a piece of footage from, for instance a video found on YouTube, it is sometimes expensive when paying copyright fees.

5. I learned that it is not okay to use someone else’s image even though it is linked to what you are using it for.

5 Integrative Questions

1. There are some images on Google that do not have copyright, is it ethical to use these images for purposes of a project?

2. Where do news sites get information about an article they post (from other news sites, articles, essays)?

3. How much is usually charged for copyright of a non-expensive media material?

4. Does fair use also apply to content creators such as YouTubers that use music/sound found online?

5. Is it unfair to get ideas from other news sites, and make better ideas for your news site?