Copyright and Fair Use Laws
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Copyright and fair use laws constitute a mammoth part of computer literacies.
It might be considered that the understanding of copyright and fair use is part of computer literacy. That is, a web author might be deprived of agency by not having knowledge of basic copyright and basic fair use. In the US, in order for an item to be copyrighted, it has to be original and fixed. If that is true, then copyright protection is automatic. Therefore, much of the content on the web is copyright protected.
Knowledge of fair use then becomes a crucial part of computer literacy, as to use under fair use is to use without copyright infringement. Fair use in the US is defined in section 107 of Title 17 of the copyright act. Four factors are relevant: basically, the purpose of the use, the amount used, the nature of the copyrighted work, and the impact of the use on the potential market of the copyright holder.
Therefore, in order to compose in digital networks, and in a fashion that is literate, one needs basic understanding of copyright and fair use.
Read more about this topic: Computer Literacy
Famous quotes containing the words fair and/or laws:
“If there be any man who thinks the ruin of a race of men a small matter, compared with the last decoration and completions of his own comfort,—who would not so much as part with his ice- cream, to save them from rapine and manacles, I think I must not hesitate to satisfy that man that also his cream and vanilla are safer and cheaper by placing the negro nation on a fair footing than by robbing them.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“I would have these good people to recollect, that the laws of this country hold out to foreigners an offer of all that liberty of the press which Americans enjoy, and that, if this liberty be abridged, by whatever means it may be done, the laws and the constitution, and all together, is a mere cheat; a snare to catch the credulous and enthusiastic of every other nation; a downright imposition on the world.”
—William Cobbett (1762–1835)