©2013 Copyright. All rights reserved.

The term copyright "is a form of protection provided by the laws of the United States (title 17, U.S. Code) to the authors of 'original works of authorship,' including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works," as stated at copyright.gov. An example of copyright would be if someone created their own original song and then would upload it to the internet so everyone can her it. Another scenario of copyright would be when an author publishes his or her book and sells them in a local bookstore.

Fair use means to copy any copyrighted material and use it. However, it can only be used for a limited time and "transformative" purpose. Anyone can borrow a copyrighted material if it is used to be commented upon, criticized, or to become a parody. For example, lots of people on YouTube make parodies of popular artists like One Direction, Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, etc.

Shepard Fairey was sentenced for using an official photograph of Obama during the presidential election in 2008. He created the red, white, and blue poster of Obama and was claimed to be "tampering with evidence." In court, Fairey was pleaded guilty for tampering and falsifying documents and confronting copyright infringement. Fairey was ordered to pay $25,000 in fines.

A public domain is a consisting of works that are works of the US government, no longer ineligible to be copyright protection or has expired copyrights. Creative commons is a organization that enables the sharing and use of creativity knowledge through free legal tools and receives no money for itself. An example of public domain can be found here. This is a website that allows us to browse through William Shakespeare's Poem and we are allowed to use them.  

Halloween before image used with permission, Creative Commons

Playing with photoshop exploring what liquify, dodge and burn, and clone stamp tool can do