Today's online environment is full of great ideas, images and content for anyone's easy disposal. This is a great thing, I believe the more ideas and access to these ideas, the greater the pool of creativity and the easier the generation of more ideas. This thought can go back to the death of the author, i.e. the reader become the author and even further to the question where do ideas come from? This can be looked at another time, for now though, the great pool of creativity that is the web can offer some amazing forward thinking and unique views or reflection on life and beyond and anyone can contribute to this pool as easy as just experiencing it which is liberating.
However, there is one sore point of this organic machine. That is, Copyright. Ideas no matter where they come from, when put out there publicly, at some level need to be protect from theft and plagiarism. To copyright something these days is often not enough protection and needs further security in the form of Trademarks and Registered.
For some examples of how frequent this happens this site provides example stolen digital assets code, design etc... http://www.pirated-sites.com
To avoid the misuses and abuse of digital assets a lot a seemingly free photos, sound and video is shared under the creative commons license (www.creativecommons.org/). But, It's important to know your place when using someone else work and also to protect your own. Credit you own work as well as other peoples when required. Ask for permission when needed and don't steal. If this becomes a problem simply create your own assets.
It all comes down to who's material you are using, if it's not yours are you allowed to use it? How would you feel if someone used you work outside any agreed terms?
For more information on Copyright, Intellectual Property, Creative Commons, Open Source Licensing and more visit the links below or contact you nation copyright agency.
Inspiration for this post was taken from an article in Australian Web Designer Issue 4 2008 by Dave Howell
Uesful Links
http://www.copyright.org.au
http://wwww.wipo.int
http://copywrite.org/
http://www.ipaustralia.gov.au
http://www.opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php
http://creativecommons.org/
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