Online Learning Update Ray Schroeder, editor, COLRS - Online@Illinois Springfield

Online Learning Update - a blog published daily since 2001 by Ray Schroeder, Professor Emeritus, University of Illinois at Springfield

Monday, November 18, 2002
Just Can't Hardly Give It Away: Generosity Versus Copyright by Carol Ebbinghouse, Library Director, Western State University College of Law

It used to be so easy, back in the days of paper. If you wanted to give something away, you gave it away. You could even write a little note saying something like, "May be copied with attribution." In the age of digital versions of creations, it has become nearly impossible to name something that can't be copied off the Internet - stories, poems, drawings, photographs, movies, music, etc. - and copied quickly, efficiently, and with no degradation from one copy to the next. But, alas, it has also become nearly impossible to avoid copyright law's protections for the creator. Now generous creators find it difficult to put their works in the public domain for all to use, copy, share, and improve.

 



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