This week’s readings focused on how copyright affects instructors and when you need to cite your sources. Based on both of the readings, it seems that any work, even that that belongs to the public domain must be cited or permission must be given to use the information. Work becomes public domain when 70 years has passed since the creator’s death, meaning that (according to the Digital Learning Support source) “anyone can use them for any purpose, without attribution or paying royalties”. This becomes very important especially when thinking in a historical context, as many sources would have already entered into the public domain based on the passage of time.
“When you want to perform, display, or show a film, video, or TV program for teaching, training, or entertainment, you have to consider the rights of those who own the copyright to the work you want to use.”
This quote raises the question of if this same principle applies to YouTube videos and self made videos that one may make for their class. Is it possible to plagiarize yourself? Because YouTube videos are made on a free platform, I am not sure if copyright would apply to these types of videos or not. You would still have to cite them for sure, but I am unaware of any legal action that could be taken against those who show it in an educational context.
“And it is worth noting that these rights belong to an author whether or not they claim them or include a copyright notice on their work. That wasn’t always the case, but under current law, any fixed created work is copyrighted.”
This is an especially important quote to note, as I don’t think everyone realizes how much information is copyrighted. Books written by anonymous authors and other similar types of sources are still under copyright protection even when the creator does not claim them or include a copyright notice in the work. This is important when analyzing the copyright situation for historical sources, as some of them are written by unknown authors or when using encyclopedias.
