Wilson Lau New Media

The Internet is a great source of information. While we are enjoying the access and convenience of retrieving information from it, we should be aware of the copyright of the materials. To start with, checking the small print at the bottom of any site’s homepage is necessary.  For example, here is one “Copyright (c) 2005 The University of Hong Kong. All rights reserved.” that you can see at the bottom of Hong Kong University’s site.  Besides, we should develop the good habit of attribution as James Foust said in chapter 10 of Online Journalism.

Despite the doctrine of “objectivity”, many journalists do take on the role of advocates. Some of them have causes to champion. I guess among them is photo-journalist Andrew Heavens who is glad that the surplus images of the riots and the bloody suppression of the demonstrators by the government have been put into good use - they have helped to keep retainingthe world’s attention on the conflicts in Ethiopia and the continued sufferings inflicted on the people in the country. These images were posted in Flickrs and with copyright licensed through Creative Commons. Mr Heavens said in his post How I learned to stop worrying and love Creative Commons  ” … lots of good things have come out of the fact that my cast-off photos are swimming around the internet with a CC license attached. People have written in checking to see if they can use them in textbooks, calendars, Ethiopian restaurant menus, novelty Amharic greeting cards.”

I totally agree with his point that “The greatest thing that Creative Commons does is give you work an extra lease of life. After the news event has passed on, the photographs are still out there, waiting for someone else to pick up on them, give them a new meaning and use them in a different setting.” In a way, it is a new way of collaboration.

New technology in distribution of content has prompted the media to change their mindset. I am all for the Congress’s ruling that cable companies in the US had to pay but they would set the prices that broadcasters could not veto the emerging cable technologies in Lawrence Lessig’s article Some like it hot. Peer-to-peer file sharing is a new way of distributing contents. So far no one is charging anything for providing peer-to-peer file-sharing, Lessig said.

I agree with both Heavens and Lessigs because with the rapid developments of Web 2.0. We all need a new set of copyright regulations that appropriately reflect the rapid changes. The regulations need to be sufficiently flexible to protect the rights of the creators while continue to foster creativity of those who would like to build on the works of the others.

Attribution is emphasized in Creative Commons. If my works, that are properly credited to me, are distributed widely and as a result give me maximum exposure (I believe this is what every journalist wants), it is beneficial both to me and the people whom have been inspired. Which just reminds me the environment in which I will be working - China and what is the state of its intellectual property rights. CC organised some activities in the country.