Copyleft

On Friday Clare Atkins gave us another presentation, this time on the topic of copyleft.

She covered some of the controversial arguments around copyright and its alternative copyleft. We then looked at creative commons and some of the people in the copyleft movement such as Nina Paley and Larry lessig.

At the end of the presentation she gave us the task of answering the questions she gave us on our blogs, then attaching a creative commons licence to it.

Question: Do you think that copying is always theft or not – explain your reasons?

Answer:

No, I don’t think copying something is always theft. For example, if it involves copying content for educational purposes, I strongly believe it should not be considered theft. Any education material should be available to anyone, at any time, for free.

Withholding access to educational content to me seems like a bigger crime.

Question: Who was Aaron Swartz and what part has he played in the copyright debate?

Answer:

Aaron Swartz was a computer programmer prodigy and entrepreneur. He helped creative commons and was one of the main developers of the popular social website Reddit, he also has a long list of achievements relating to technologies on the internet and was considered one of the most influential people of the internet.

Regarding what part he played in the copyright debate, not only did Aaron help create creative commons, he was also an outspoken copyright activist.

In 2011 he downloaded a large amount of files through an academic journal website “JSTOR” from a computer at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which he got caught before been able to finish. It was argued that if he would have been successful in getting all the files, he would have released them all to the public for free.

He also was the main reason the controversial SOPA bill was stopped.

For more on information on Arron Swartz, you can find his documentary “The Internet’s Own Boy” Here.

The creative commons licence I attached to this blog is “Attribution”. It means anyone can take this work and do anything with it, as long as they credit me.

To learn more about creative commons, click here.