I prefer the classic copyright off All rights reserved. I believe this gives me more flexibility as well as gives my work more protection. Traditional copyright give me full domain over my work, rather than just parts of it. I think this is much more clear to the public as well.
Using others work ethically
I think it is always best that if you are choosing to use a creators work such as art or image that you notify them and properly credit them. There is way to much taking of others work and posting it online nowadays. I have noticed that especially artists are constantly posting about accounts taking and reposting their art online without their permission, or spreading awareness about other accounts, sharing their art and pretending to be them.
I think there are always steps you can take to ethically use others work, such as citing it, or tagging them in the post. When in doubt you can always ask the creator.
There are also all kinds of websites that share copyright free images, unsplash, is one I found in my research. Unsplash is a site that lets creators everywhere upload images. This is great because it allows them to get their work our there, while you get to use free images.
After reading the requirements for module 6 (no AI-generated images, no stock images, no unedited photos), I decided to create my own digital “artwork” to play things on the safe side. I am by no means an artist so my results aren’t the prettiest– but they get the job done! I plan on revamping them or even replacing them with my own edited photos in the future. I tried to focus on geometric elements within my art, complimenting cool colors, and making text stand out when it needed to– like in my website’s Favicon. Below are the images I created.
Image by Frankie Wulf. Created with Affinity.Image by Frankie Wulf. Created with Canva.
The Process
The process for making the Favicon on Affinity involved using the Artistic Text tool to find a font for the initials, as well as further manipulations within the Quick FX tab to outline/adjust the transparency of the letters. The line in the middle was made using the pencil tool and hand drawing it with one of the acrylic path brushes. The semicircles were made using the segment tool– and again, they were outlined/colored/adjusted accordingly within the Quick FX tab. The semicircles were moved to the bottom layers of the canvas to have them behind the FW initials. The second image was made using Canva. I manually adjusted the size of the canvas to fit the header of my site. Using the Elements tab, I inserted and duplicated blue triangles, then thickly outlined a few in a lighter blue color. The background was “filled” with a large rectangle made mostly transparent and moved to the bottom layer of the canvas.
File Types
I chose to have both files exported as PNGs. I knew the Favicon should be a PNG because this article by the CRO:NYX team suggested it was the best file type for that particular part of a website. The second I figured would be best as a PNG as well because the same article suggested that file type is best for “flat-colored graphics”.
Image by Ahmet Yüksek from PixabayImage by Herbert Bieser from Pixabay
Copyright Reflection
After thinking about it, I’ve decided to pick CC-BY-NC 4.0 as the license. This license requires that reusers give credit to the creator and allows reusers to copy and distribute the material in any medium or format in unadapted form only, even for commercial purposes. I’m going with this since I don’t want my posts (most of which will consist of my opinions and thoughts) to be used for profit or for personal gain, and I want to have some form of control.
Using the Work of Others Ethically
In my opinion, it is important to use other people’s work ethically. Getting permission from the original creators of a certain work and giving them credit is the responsible and morally right thing to do as a creator yourself. Giving them credit will let the public know that you’re not stealing their work for your own gain or benefit, and it’ll also let them know that you’re being honest.
I found the Canva Software program to be the most convenient for me to use. Having already purchased a membership to the software, the template and AI assistance functions made this the perfect choice. Going into choosing a header, I considered factors such as pixel size, file type, accessibility, and relevance to the topic. My particular template called for a header to be 1000 x 250 pixels. PNG files support transparency and are best for logos, such as this header. I opened Canva, selected “Custom Size” and entered the correct pixel count. From there, I searched templates for headers.
Upon finding a suitable base to work with, I began personalizing. I removed the template images and used the image search to find newer more relevant images to my blog. Being a Digital Foray blog, I included pictures of technology demonstrating it being used. High contrast was an important factor when choosing the color scheme. When I was happy with the design, I selected “Share,” “Download,” and selected PNG as my file type. Once downloaded, it was easily uploaded to my subdomain by editing the appearance of the header. From there, I still needed to do a bit of cropping. After a couple of tries, I produced the final result.
Created by Mandy Ditmer using Canva
The Day I Discovered Site Icons
You know those little pictures that show up on the tab of a website? I never thought much about the effort it took to have them in place. Each site icon is designed to give personalization, diversity, and communicates info quickly through the website’s tab. Again, I used the Canva Software, which allowed me to easily select parameters for my image. Similar to the Header, the image needed to be clear, simple, and relevant. Using Canva, I selected a new project by custom size. I selected 512 x 512 pixels. This allowed for the image to fit properly for WordPress. I used the image selector to search for an image of a flute.
Once found, I used to AI tool to make the flute more solid, more bold, being held by a woman, and abstract. It excelled through any challenge I gave it with a myriad of potential options to choose. As a professional flautist, I chose an image that I related to the most. Once happy, I selected “Share,” “PNG” as file type, and “Download.” The same as the header, a PNG file type allows for transparency and larger files, ideal for this application. Once downloaded, I returned to the “Appearance” section of WordPress, selected “Header” and uploaded my image. It was important to keep it a 1:1 ratio, as that is what fits best on the tab. I will likely keep experimenting with this process until I am completely satisfied. In other words, The Best is Yet to Come.
A person’s online identity consists of all the information about them or that they have shared on the web. This can include posts on blogs or social media, but also any personal data one entrusts a site with.
Why Does it Matter?
Today, web identity is an important aspect of a person’s public persona. People should carefully consider which pieces of themselves they want to share online, as once shared, information can be difficult to truly erase. Old information could rear its head, proving problematic when found by a potential employer or when a company chooses to sell your data.
My web identity thus far consists mostly of social media posts. For this project, I created a domain which will become a part of my web identity. I chose to use my name as the title because it is vague but necessarily tied to me. I hope to use my domain for various things, so I didn’t choose anything specific. I also want it to be easy to find so that potential employers and schools can view my work and accomplishments.
I discovered through this project that I never fully understood the idea of “copyrighting” something. I had always imagined it as something much more tangible. This project also helped me to understand the implications of following through on copyright. It was hard to decide where I would fall with regard to how comfortable I am with the work here being used or replicated. I was torn between protecting my ideas as my own and contributing to the greater well of resources that I also pull from. Ultimately, I decided that because my work on this domain is not profitable, and I am currently on a mission to be a more generous community member, I would proceed with the CC BY 3.0 license. As I understand it, 3.0 is the least restrictive Creative Commons license.
A large part of ethical use of others’ work is attribution. We call people’s creation work because it requires just that. The work that people share builds the pool of resources we share. When you are drawing from the pool of community resources, using someone else’s work to create your own, it is important to give back through attribution. By attributing the original creator, you are acknowledging the effort they put in. You may also be leading more eyes to their creations and aiding them monetarily, creatively, or otherwise.
This week I want to go over what I have learned in class about copyright, creative commons, and attribution.
What is copyright?
From the reading assignments web article The Cyberlaw Guide to Protest Art: Copyright, an explanation of what copyright is, what I understand copyright to be is the legal protection of a person’s creative works. Those works could be any kind of art; meaning drawings, music, videos, photos, writing, etc. The copy right protection means that only the creator/owner of the work, unless they give permission to someone, has the sole right to sell their work. Preventing someone else from copying their work and selling it for themselves. The purpose is to ensure that people who spend time, money, and effort on creating something will get to make money buy selling their work. If as soon as someone created something new, everyone could just copy it and sell it as their own, the creator would lose a lot of the profit.
What is the Creative Commons?
I chose the creative commons: CC BY-NC 4.0 Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license because the blogs on this subdomain are all projects for the University of Mary Washington Intro to Digital Studies: DGST 101 Course. Since they are all school projects, I chose to make the work in this blog to be the most permissive. By doing so, re-users have the most freedom to, as creative commons summarizes: “to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, so long as attribution is given to the creator” creativecommons.org summarized explanation of the six types of creative commons licenses.
What about attribution?
Attribution is when you cite the creator when you use, quote, talk about someone’s work. Some people will state on their website how they want to be cited, you will see that on peer reviewed journals also. If they do not specify or you cannot find the original creator, you do you best to cite where you found it. Essentially, you are giving them credit for their work. However, some people will chose not to share their work for free, generally you will see a watermarked or reduced image posted on their website. Some work can be considered “public domain” if the copyright has expired, has been removed by the creator, or was produced by the government. However, it is still good practice to cite whenever possible.
Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson posted on the Screen Rant web article “Calvin & Hobbes Infamous Urinating Decal, Explained” by TJ Mills
What about “fair use”?
This gets tricky, typically you are not allowed to use another person’s work for your own gain. Unless you are criticizing it, because it would be unreasonable to have to ask permission of someone to write negatively about their work. However, using a work and transforming it into something else is generally considered fair use. As well as using it for educational purposes. A good example of fair use is Calvin and Hobbes, a common sticker seen on the back of cars is a depiction of Calvin urinating on a logo. According to the Palette Swap web article by Kevin Podas the creator of Calvin and Hobbes, Bill Watterson did object to the depiction of Calvin Urinating. Only later did he decide to allow that image to be considered fair use. The bottom line is, be sure cite the creators whenever possible and do you due diligence prior to using someone’s work.
Creator unknown. Image found on Screen Rant article: Calvin & Hobbes Infamous Urinating Decal, Explained, by TJ Mills.
Copyright is a right protected under the Constitution, under which a person’s artistic expressions can not be explicitly copied and used by another person. The modes of expression that are protected include writings, music, visual works, films, and videos. Once something under one of these domains is released, a copyright is automatically created. In other words, any person who releases their work onto to web is protected by copyright. Ideas, concepts, and facts are not protected by copyright, which is a common misconception when posting on the web. You are free to get inspired by someone else’s work – which is essentially the main objective of copyright. Copyright allows for the continuation and improvement of various ideas out there; if everything people posted on the web was copyrighted, then no new information would be shared. With that, this implies that you will not directly copy and paste someone’s work and claim it as your own. That is considered infringement, and can lead to a lawsuit. Therefore, it is important to acknowledge and understand the parameters of copyright before creating your work!
CC BY 4.0
I decided I want my website to be protected under CC BY 4.0. This allows others to use and remix my work however they may choose, as long as they give me a proper attribution. I chose this specific Creative Commons license because I want my material to be accessible to all without any barriers such as finances – because I feel that information on the web can belong to anyone if they want it! In addition, I do not want my work to get lost in someone else’s, hence the attribution aspect of this license. If I worked hard on something, I would still like the credit for it, which I feel is a reasonable ask! All in all, the web should remain accessible for anyone who uses it.
Picture by Erika Varga from pixabay.com
Ethical use of others’ work
When publishing work of your own, whether that be a research paper or a canvas painting, it is imperative not to use someone else’s work if you do not have the right permissions to do so. All people and their work should be respected and appreciated for what it is. It is great to be inspired by other work, which is something we all experience, but stealing it or using it for profit is wrong.
“Office Work” by Juergen_Sieber – via Pixabay. Used under the Pixabay Content License. Source: Pixabay.
Digital Copyrights
This week in my Digital Studies course, I learned a ton about digital copyright licenses. Before this week, I had never really 100% understood how digital copyrighting worked, I assumed that you had to file for any kind of digital copyright, which isn’t true. Technically as soon as you finish a creative work it is copyrighted in your name.
My Website’s CC License
For my website this week I chose to give it a special CC license instead of the typical “All Rights Reserved” copyright. I did this in order to have greater control of what people can and cannot do with my website. I chose the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license. This license allows sharing as long as they give appropriate credit, indication of any changes, do not use it commercially, or distribute remixed material.
“Internet, Copyright, Protection” by Peggy_Marco, via Pixabay. Used under the Pixabay Content License. Source: Pixabay.
Using Others’ Work Ethically
Additionally this week I have learned about how to ethically use the work of others. whether you are sharing, remixing, or reviewing it. Before you use the work of another person whether it be a video, passage, or image, you must check what permissions and licenses the work is bound to so you can adequately give credit. It is important to include the names of who created the work, the source where you found it, and the link if possible. It is incredibly important to give proper credit when using others’ works.
After learning about the basics of copyright I was a bit relived that it was easier to understand than I thought it would be. I was always afraid of using someones work and not properly giving them credit. As discussed previously in this class, it is important to allow the use of openness on the internet, but that doesn’t mean not giving credit. With a copyright, one can choose how they wish to be credited for their work while still allowing for that openness. It is also important that fair-use allows for limited use of a copyrighted material for criticism, commentary, education, parody, and news. For my website I used CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 because I still want to keep the internet open. This copyright license allows for my work to be used by others under creative commons (CC) with the exception of commercial use. It also means that if others do use my work they have to follow the same copyright license.
Ethical Use of Others Work
Maintaining the openness of the internet means allowing the proper credit of those who’s works you have used. One of the biggest frustrations amongst copyright work is fair-use because it allows for criticism. Without it though, differing opinions would be silenced which would make the internet a very different place than it is today. Additionally, respecting ones copyright license offers more validity to the work done as it allows for a more credible reputation. Images found on CreativeComons.org through Openverse. Image 1 (Copyright Logo) Image 2 (Cat on Computer)
