Assignment #5

While originally copyright was applied only to books, in today's world the effects of copyright can be seen everywhere, from movies to material found on the internet. With more and more material falling under copyright, the laws pertaining to protecting someones original work have become very expansive and much disputed.

The first copyright law put in place in England was called the Statute of Anne of 1709. It was largely created because of the leap in copies being made of books with the invention of the printing press. In U.S. history, copyright was originally going to be under the States jurisdiction in the Articles of Confederation, but with the Declaration of Independence a copyright clause was added to promote creativity in science and the arts. The Copyright Act of 1790 allowed works to be copyrighted for 14 years, with and additional 14 years if the author applied for it. Over the years the time and types of materials has been expanded.

Adelphi Charter, a group that advocates a more free flow of information sums up the long standing argument against some copyright laws.

"While exclusive rights have been adapted and harmonized to meet the challenges of the knowledge economy, copyright’s exceptions are radically out of line with the needs of the modern information society. The lack of harmonisation of exceptions hinders the circulation of knowledge based goods and services across Europe. The lack of flexibility within the current European exceptions regime also prevents us from adapting to a constantly changing technological environment."

Another problem that many historians are facing because of copyright laws is how and when works can be desplayed or published because the copyright owner can not be determined. As with the case of the trove of historic jazz recordings that cannot be used because the issues arising from copyright many other works are held in sort of a limbo.

Assignment #4

This assignments' collection of readings focuses mainly on how historians should utilize the benefits of the digital age and be aware of the difficulties that come with it. The readings also cover how historian have to actively save online sources before they disappear in the digital ether.

With the coming of internet 2.0 and the interactive nature of websites, it is important for historians to utilize the new format to fully engage their readers and be able to use their input to enrich the site. As Cohen and Rosenzweig state, we must go beyond passive “texts” such as websites and web pages and also think about active processes such as communication and interaction.

While this approach can inevitability lead to some difficulties, it is still a valuable source of information. One problem that can arise when history is open to the general public is a overabundance of comments and the like that has nothing to do with the material at hand, leaving the site and original material smothered. Dr. Cebula gives an example of this when he explores the Library of Congress decision to create image archives on Flicker so that the public and add tags to the photographs. As Cebula says, "There are 20-30 notes on the photograph and not one contains useful historical information to give context or help us understand the photograph."

Another way that the internet can be used to enrich history is by collecting historical documents, images, and personal narratives, from people all over the world that may not have been found otherwise. Additionally, it is important for historians to realize and take action to preserve digital sources that are being produces right now. If we do not take time to preserve these digital sources much of our current history could be lost.