5.+My+Report

=** AUTHORING AND MULTIMEDIA - REPORT **= The use of digital data covered by Copyright in a multimedia production reflects a lack of creativity and is against the law in all circumstances. This statement can be argued for and against and has many different sides to it.

Copyright is the right that prevents people from copying or stealing works from authors without their permission. Copyright restrictions are automatic and cover all digital data types such as films, software, texts, artistic works, music, etc. (What is Copyright?, 2008). Many people use these digital data types in their works, yet need to receive permission before doing so. However, even if they do receive permission to use the product, does this show the person as uncreative and incapable of making their own digital data products? Everything that is copyrighted falls under the Australian Copyright Act. When using other people’s work, we need to be very careful that we do not break the Copyright Act (New Australian Copyright Laws). Some of the ways to break the law are distributing an unauthorised recording that will prejudicially affect the financial interests of the performer, possessing a device for making an infringing copy and causing an unauthorised recording of a performance to be seen or heard in public during the 20-year protection period, as well as many others. M any people may agree that using digital data in other multimedia productions reflects a lack of creativity. This may be true, as the person is not thinking and producing the data, they are using other people’s work. When people produce their own work and are able to make things like artworks, stories, artistic works, etc, it shows their levels of creativeness and show who they are and what sort of person the author is. However, if a person uses someone else’s work, it does not reflect their creativity or their ideas, but someone else’s. Through this, we cannot get an idea on what the person is like or how creative they are, and this reflects a lack of creativity.

An example of this is if a person produces a slideshow consisting of photos and music that is not their own. If a person uses other people’s photos and music, they are showing the author’s creativity and not their own.

I think that although it is acceptable to use some products made by others, people should try to use their own products in their work to show more creativity. For example, a person can produce a video with their own images or videos; however they can use someone else’s music to accompany their video. This will show more creativity than if everything was someone else’s work.

If a person does not receive permission to use these products, they are illegally copying other people’s work and are breaking the law under the Australian Copyright Act (New Australian Copyright Laws). . It states that no person is to download or take another person’s work without the permission of all contributing authors of that product. No matter how they use the products, they are breaking the law in all circumstances.

On the other hand, many think that just because a person uses someone else’s work, means that they are not creative. Many people who use works in their publications or products use them and manipulate them in such a way that the author’s work nearly becomes their own. However they still need to receive permission to use these works. People can be very clever in the way they use multimedia and this can definitely show their creativity, as well as their thoughts, ideas and who they are through their publications, even if they use some concepts from other people. Creativity can be shown in many ways, and some people choose to modify other people’s work to make it represent themselves. The only time when it is not showing creativity is if the person uses images as they are and don’t make any changes. When this happens, the person is displaying the author’s creativity and not their own.

For example, a person may create a slideshow and encompass all other people’s images, however, they could then cut them or change them to make them more their own. This shows the person’s skills and understanding, as well as their creativity and the effort they have put into the project to make it their own.

However, regardless of which side a person agrees with, the producer of the multimedia product still needs to receive permission from all owners of the product, otherwise the person is breaking the law (All Right to Copy?). C opying software without the permission of the author is not right as it is unfair to the author as they are the ones who created the product. If the software is copied, it is stolen from the author. They came up with idea and created it, and it is not right to take this from them.

Everything that is copyrighted falls under the Australian Copyright Act. When using other people’s work, we need to be very careful that we do not break the Copyright Act. Some of the ways to break the law are distributing an unauthorised recording that will prejudicially affect the financial interests of the performer ; possessing a device for making an infringing copy and causing an unauthorised recording of a performance to be seen or heard in public during the 20-year protection period; as well as many others (New Australian Copyright Laws). In my opinion, I think that the use of digital data covered by Copyright in a multimedia production does not reflect a lack of creativity, as most people do all that they can to put in a lot of effort into their chosen project. Many people crop, change settings, modify and manipulate multimedia such as texts, pictures or music to make them their own, and this can be almost as creative as if they made the original multimedia. I also agree that it should be against the law to use multimedia without permission from the author; however for things such as homework or school resources, I do not think permission needs to be gained. If a person does not receive permission for anything that is not their own, then I feel it is against the law in almost all circumstances.