WRA 150: EVOLUTION OF AMERICAN THOUGHT

THURSDAY, OCT. 31, 2013

AGENDA

Housekeeping Go over proposals The challenges of Remix

Copyright, intellectual property and fair use I Hate Buzzfeed

Watch and discuss more remix examples Explore and play with apps that allow us

to remix? What’s next

GOALS FOR TODAY

Talk about the importance of proposals and give you clear expectations for each phase of the proposal process.

Discuss the idea of creativity and how remix can both facilitate and constrain this through issues of copyright and fair use.

Continue building a compendium of resources for us to reference and use as models

Try our hands at making remixes using the things we carry with us everyday.

REMINDERS

11/11: Final drafts of Project 3 due by 11:59 pm I will be giving feedback to those who want

it on their first drafts…please let me know. Any questions?

Revisions for previous papers are due by 11/15

Questions?

TO REITERATE: (TENTATIVE) TIMELINE

There are two dates for the proposal The presentation will be on 11/12 The written proposal will be due on 11/14

Rough drafts and peer review workshop will be on 11/21.

Final drafts will be due 12/10. Presentations of our final projects will be

held during finals week.

THE REMIX

Remember that this assignment asks to you think of different rhetorical purposes for your previous essays.

Remember also that you’re produc can be anything you want it to be. As long as you argue for why you’ve chosen this new mode and how it transforms or re-presents an argument/claim/thesis you’ve written in a previous paper.

Try and think about why you’re choosing this new medium to express yourself and make the proper accommodations/changes to your essay to transform its use, audience, or argument.

To get you prepared to make such cognitive leaps, you will be doing a proposal.

THE PROPOSAL

As I said earlier, the proposal phase of this project will be split into two parts: an oral and a written part.

The presentation is meant to get feedback from me and your peers about your idea for your remix before you dive into the written aspect, which will require more intellectual gumption.

I HATE BUZZFEED

Get into small groups and discuss the following questions:1. What were your general thoughts of this

article? Were you a Buzzfeed fan? Has he dissuaded

you from enjoying the site?

2. How does this article address issues of intellectual property, copyright and fair use?

I HATE BUZZFEED

This article addresses Buzzfeed in particular, but I think the claims he’s making are quite applicable to writing in general.

Asking questions about authority Why we should trust these authors/contributors is something

we need to always be aware of as both a writer—building our own ethos—and as a researcher.

Asserting an editorial point of view is just as important with any paper you write, not just in journalism. Why should readers care and how can you position yourself

as a writer in such a way that readers will care? what can people learn or take away from your writing that

they couldn’t have gained elsewhere: make your point of view clear

SPECIFICALLY…

“So how do the images above qualify? The "author,”… isn't saying anything about these images…so is it necessary to include this image in the article? If so, why him? He's not even the main character of the show. And why specifically this image of him? Does someone who's not already familiar with Everybody Loves Raymond learn anything by seeing this image?... We'll never know, because BuzzFeed's lazy staff writer was too much of a dipshit to source this image, or comment on it in any meaningful way.”

Ask yourself questions like these when thinking about what kind of media to use in your own remixes. And your writing in general. Again, it’s answering the “So what?”

EVERYTHING IS REMIX CONT’D

WHAT DID YOU THINK?

How can remix dispel the myths surrounding original thought and creativity? How does it extend definitions of intellectual property?

“The law doesn’t acknowledge the derivative nature of creativity...ideas are seen as property. But ideas are not tidy entities…”

“Nobody starts out original” “Copying is how we learn” What did you guys make of the

justification/vilification of copying?

COPYRIGHT

COPYRIGHT

In academia, if you copy and paste passages from Pride and Prejudice without appropriately attributing that material to Jane Austen, you are guilty of plagiarism.

COPYRIGHT

In the rest of the United States, if you copy and paste passages from Pride and Prejudice without appropriately attributing that material to Jane Austen, you are guilty of... nothing.

Pride and Prejudice is in the public domain, meaning that its copyright has expired and it is owned by all.

PUBLIC DOMAIN

Works in the public domain can be used by anyone for any purpose without permission.

Any work authored before 1923 is in the public domain.

All U.S. government work

BACK TO COPYRIGHT…

Copyright protects “original works of authorship” that are fixed in a tangible form of expression. Books, songs, movies, musical works, pantomimes

and choreographic works, pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works, architectural works

Gives the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time, with the intention of enabling the creator of intellectual wealth (e.g. the photographer of a photograph or the author of a book) to get compensated for their work and be able to financially support themselves (Wikipedia).

COPYRIGHT CONT’D

Gives the owner/holder of the copyright the exclusive right to do and to authorize others to do the following: to reproduce the work in copies or phonorecords to prepare derivative works based upon the work to distribute copies or phonorecords of the work to the public by

sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending to perform the work publicly, in the case of literary, musical,

dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and motion pictures and other audiovisual works

to display the copyrighted work publicly, in the case of literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works, pantomimes, and pictorial, graphic, or sculptural works, including the individual images of a motion picture or other audiovisual work; and

in the case of sound recordings, to perform the work publicly by means of a digital audio transmission.

COPYWRONG

So, if you want to do any of the things listed in the last slide, you need to ask permission from the original creator to do so.

As students, you need to be particularly vigilant when using audio, video, and graphics from the Web that may be protected under copyright law.

But, through fair use, it is usually no problem for you to use any sources you’d like for a project that will only be viewed by other class members and me.

FAIR USE

In the U.S. fair use protects criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research—allows authors, researchers, teachers, etc. to use copyright‐protected work without explicit permissions or releases

There are four factors to be considered in determining whether or not a particular use is fair:1. the purpose and character of the use, including whether such

use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes

2. the nature of the copyrighted work3. amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to

the copyrighted work as a whole; and4. the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of

the copyrighted work.

FAIR USE

So, because the work you do for this class categorically falls under scholarship, you needn’t worry too much about copyright.

BUT, once your project goes public on the Web—if you want it to—there are many more laws and issues that must be considered.

Luckily, there are options out there than can help you find the resources you need without being stifled by copyright laws, like…

CREATIVE COMMONS

A nonprofit organization that promotes fair uses, digital creativity, sharing, etc.

CC licensing allows creators to affix their work with customized copyright protection (e.g., others are free to use the work for non- commercial purposes)

Flickr is one site that supports CC licensing

BASICALLY

If you are trying to use a copyrighted anything, you need to ask permission first.

If you find something listed as “fair-use” or something that marked with a creative commons license, then you do not need to ask for permission.

In BOTH cases, however, you need to attribute them for scholarly work.

Think of it like citing sources in a paper. Shows that you’re an ethical researcher and

allows others to access your sources/media.

EXAMPLES FROM STUDENTS

MORE EXAMPLES

MY OWN EXAMPLE

DO YOU HAVE ANY OTHER GOOD EXAMPLES OF REMIX?

SOME RESOURCES

For public domain images, movies, etc, check out the Prelinger Archive. Be careful of what you might find there, however…

For creative commons music, check out ccmixter for some good free music.

For downloading some video clips from youtube, try Keepvid

If you want to create your own video and don’t have access to cameras, the Creativity Exploratory has cameras available for you to use.

LET’S TRY IT OURSELVES

On your smart phones, download the app called “Splice”

I want us to try and make small movies remixing the things you already have on your phone.

Just to really underscore how everything is a remix and that you likely have ample resources on your person everyday

Think of all the pictures, media, data that you have with you and how you can tell a story with all of that media

TO SUM UP

Creativity is not something that can be traced back to its origin—we are constantly taking inspiration from things all around us and that should not be penalized through copyright.

That said, be aware of how copyright laws can affect the outcomes of your work both in and out of school.

Again, you are the arbiters of a successful remix. You have all of the resources you need to create a rhetorically effective remix.

FOR NEXT CLASS

Work on your proposals Read:

TBD