“While there are a few well defined use cases in which the use of copyrighted material is definitely legal or definitely illegal in the US, there is a large gulf of practices that fall somewhere in between. In those cases, the definitive ruling of legal/illegal comes only when the copyright holder sues the party using the material and a judge rules on it.” This quote really helps to show the main point of the article. It shows us that the use of copyrighted materials have very blurry lines as to whether it is acceptable or not. Copyright laws are there to protect the author while fair use laws are there to protect the public from having scarce resources which creates a messy legal line. This article basically tells us that fair use is extremely flexible which makes it hard for us to understand. Although there are many aspects of it that would help to keep us safe from copyright issues. Essentially as long as you are not copying another persons work or hurting them financially you are typically pretty safe.
“It is a common, but incorrect, practice to re-use images found online in journal articles, papers, presentations, and theses. The best practice is to assume, always, that images are subject to copyright and that permission should be gained before using them.” This quote made me question why we do not (or at least I did not) talk about copyright with online images. When talking/learning about copyright it tends to just be focused on others writing. However, I had never even thought about the fact that online images maybe protected under copyright laws as well. While that is my fault as it seems pretty obvious now and I could have looked into it before now I guess I had always assumed that images in the public domain were free to use as long as you cited it. It had never crossed my mind that I may need to get permission to use it. So I would wonder why as a society we do not put more of an emphasis on the importance of copyright when it comes to images.
“Copyright for Instructors.” UMW DTLT, November 22, 2016. http://umwdtlt.com/copyright-for-instructors/
“Can I use it?” “Fair-Use”, “Public Domain” and “Creative Commons, Copy-Left, and other Licenses.” From Copyright and Intellectual Property Toolkit, Univ. of Pittsburgh Library System: https://pitt.libguides.com/copyright/caniuseit
