Copyright or Copywrong?

Image source

In response to Miss Coulson’s blog discussing the legalities of copyrighting... apparently I have been labelled a future felon. Me, a felon? No way!....

Similarly to Miss Coulson I too would never willingly steal from a store, person or residence, in fact I am so against pirated movies that on a recent trip to Thailand I appeared to be the only passenger returning to Australia without a suitcase of the latest blockbusters. So that there is pure evidence of my high moral stature!

I am however, no stranger to the enormity of copyright. Professional Experience 3 requires us to source our images used in blogs and other forms of digital media via the website: Creative Commons. Now to be totally honest, I find the frustration of such sites as FlickrCC hard to navigate and source images I desire. The temptation of performing a much simpler Google search nags at me like a wife condemned to life with a lazy husband!

I understand the importance in portraying ourselves as model citizens within the code of online ethics, morals and values, but does this mean that anyone who has ever photocopied, cut and pasted or printed anything online that wasn’t their own work a felon also? Answer that one fellow moral citizens!

I also understand the importance of educating students in such moral and ethical values. As mentioned in a previous blog:  Budd:e deals with the issue of copyright in its interactive website. Educating children in copyright laws, not only within images displayed in online search engines, but in photographs, stories and ideas created by their peers is an integral part of habituating children with all aspects of online use.

Now in the instance of funding for copyrighted software, is it fair for students to miss out all together? Or is it better to select a few students to participate in such software? Perhaps budgets for schools should be better funded by the Government or somehow allocated in the school year’s fees? The overarching question is: how do we fix this to make an even playing field for all students in technology education, while remaining on the ‘good-side’ of the law?