Copyright

Diane Graves, the librarian, came to our last class to talk about copyright. I learned many things that are going to help me in Trinity and generally, in life.
It was very interesting to learn about the "Fair Use" Rule. There are certain situations when it's ok to use another person's work. From the website that was provided in class, the third rule was the one that I liked best:"Giving the Author Credit Doesn't Let You Off the Hook". I thought that if you give credit to someone else's work, then you are not plagiarizing or infringing copyright laws, but that's not the case. It is important to get authorization from the author, if not, then there's a copyright violation. "Fair Use" doesn't mean that one can use someone else's work freely.

Another thing that was very helpful to know is the legal point of view of file-sharing. I knew it was illegal to download music of files in general through programs like LimeWire, Kazaa, etc. but I didn't know that a student can get sued for sharing files. I think it's a good thing to do because the music industry is losing a great amount of money due to illegal file sharing. Even though now I have to buy my music, I think it's better because it's a good way to support the artists you like. I'd rather spend $0.99 + tax for a song on Itunes than get sued because of file sharing.