Wk1 Blog Comment2: Kristin McKernin

Comment on  on Kristin McKernin Wk1 Reading on Copyright Law
Original comment post HERE

Kristin, I would have to say that this is one great pot. You have touched on so many different topics about this issue that I will have to try to just focus on a few. I agree that the United States copyright laws are incredibly overblown and are put into place to make the big companies richer not necessarily the artist who produce the music. I agree 100% that the production of the music itself should not be the money maker, the money should be made from the live performances which are fueled by the buzz digital media now helps to proliferate. Also I agree with you that a more in depth look at copyright issues, such as we just did, should have been done earlier in the program. Thank you so much for a great post.

-Joe Marquez

Original post For Kristin McKernin

Wk1 Blog Post - Copyright

Although I am happy to have covered this subject, again I am questioning the order of class sequence along this journey at Full Sail.  I knew what copyright was and that there were some rules, but I never really knew all that entailed until embarking on my Full Sail journey.  I was first made aware of it when I made my introduction video, Week 1 of Month 1, when I had looped the introduction to a Darius Rucker song as my background music.  I had JUST used iMovie for the first time, the music files wouldn't show because I was missing an update, and my iTunes library was nicely showing right there.  Since then, we have been been constantly reminded of the rules of using your own photographs or making your own clip art.  It wasn't until Full Sail that I was introduced to Creative Commons, a site that I now use often.  Since I have to make up ALL of my own curriculum, I used to always just do a Google search for images and use those throughout my lessons.  Now that I have been made aware, I always try Creative Commons first.  Maybe it is just me, but I think that this lesson and the lesson on iMovie would have been INCREDIBLY helpful in month 1; I had to find out with a marked down assignment.

Photo by ecstaticist via flickr

The one movie that really stood out for myself was Good Copy / Bad Copy.  I found it very interesting and immediately emailed it to all of my friends in the music industry.  It really got me thinking and on more tangents than one.  I compared it to my classroom.  People often ask why I do not have many rules in my classroom and I always tell them, the more rules, the more they are broken.  This is a similar comparison to what this documentary showed.  The United States has so many rules and laws compared to each one of the other countries shown, and guess who seems to have the biggest problem with them being broken?  The United States

This movie really showed that America really does focus on making as much money possible, either independently or as a company.  All of the artists/actors in Nigeria, Brazil, and Sweden didn't focus on the direct income of money from their work, but sharing something with others.  I think that really is a value that our nation has lost, it is always who can get the furthest with money.  I especially liked the idea in Brazil, where the artist is okay with not making money on the direct sales of their tracks, but those tracks bring people to the artists' events, where they do make money.  In the end, the artist makes money as does the street vendors.  The culture and passion of each of the people in these countries really stood out and it was really neat to see.  They tried to show that same passion by showing the GirlTalk story, but had to show the realization of what he is doing is basically a crime.  

I am really glad that this documentary was included because it really showed the real-world aspect of copyright.