Prompt #1
For this discussion prompt, I reviewed the Hudson Institute White Paper which essentially detailed reasoning as to why they Copyright Office should be separated from the Library of Congress. Based on some of the statements made, I believe that the Hudson Institute provides enough reasoning for separation of the Copyright Office from the Library of Congress. The overall concern that was brought forth was that the Copyright Office has very little authority, despite having significant responsibility (Tepp, Oman, 2018). The article seemed to make it clear that Copyright Office was put on a low priority and any kind of negative impact was worse for them. The authors were even so bold as to declare that if the Copyright Office remained in line with the Library of Congress, then the Copyright Office does not capable of making their own decisions, since they must follow whatever the Library of Congress declares as fit. Surely being trapped behind this will can’t be healthy for any organization.
Further into the white paper, we can see main beneficial reasons to separation. The first of these is Keeping costs low. The summary of this is that only initial additional funding it required, but it would ultimately save money because the Copyright Office would be allowed to hire private IT services. This could potentially end up costing nothing as some companies will hold value in simply providing a service. The second benefit is that the Copyright Office would become more efficient. Faster filing, quicker responses, and more relevant search results. The third benefit mentioned in this white paper is sources of funding. Additional capital investment by all could enable the Copyright Office to receive the funding they need without having to request for further funding from the government. These reasons seem beneficial to me and I believe that there is enough reason to even separate the Copyright Office from the Library of Congress.
Prompt #2
When talking about issues of copyright, we need to be able to understand several terms for legal purposes. Four of these terms are plagiarism, copyright infringement, attribution, and transformation. The terms plagiarism and copyright infringement can often become confused as one and the same, however there is distinct difference. Plagiarism essentially means that someone takes a piece of work that is not theirs, but presents it as their own (Bailey, 2013). An example of this in education would be a time when one of my students turned in an audio file they supposedly created. It turned out the audio file was simply submitted from their personal library of music. Copyright Infringement is basically any violation of a copyright. One example of copyright infringement would be to reproduce a copy of a piece of work. Take music for example. It is very easy to simply duplicate a song and hand it to someone. The term attribution basically means that credit is being given where it is due. An example of this is to literally cite any source of anything you use. Simply attributing a source does not automatically protect you from copyright infringement. The last term, transformation, relates to the actual “improvements” made to the original work of art. When my students take a video clip and edit in their own sound effects, they are transforming the way their video plays. Each of these terms are important to know and they only scratch the surface of what we all need to know in order to successfully avoid any kind of copyright issues within our campus, district, or anywhere.
References
Bailey, J. (2013, October 07). The Difference Between Copyright Infringement and Plagiarism. Retrieved March 06, 2018, from https://www.plagiarismtoday.com/2013/10/07/difference-copyright-infringement-plagiarism/
Tepp, S., & Oman, R. (2015, October). A 21st Century Copyright Office: The Conservative Case for Reform [PDF]. Hudson Institute.
Key Discussion Points
Burning CD's and handing copies to friends back in the day was infringing on copyright
Utilize "Dollars and Sense" strategies when managing entities
Plagiarism and Copyright are not the same thing