The Big C - Copyright

Image Credit: Copyright Authority 

We have all been there, It’s 11 p.m and you have a research paper due in the morning and you hit up Google to find some images to use as filler in your paper. However, did you know that what you’re doing, using someone else's image without their permission, is considered copyright infringement?

The U.S Copyright Office defines copyright infringement as, “when a copyrighted work is reproduced, distributed, performed, publicly displayed, or made into a derivative work without the permission of the copyright owner.” In laymen’s terms, this means copyright infringement occurs when someone uses another person’s work without permission.

So that image that you just copied and pasted is considered a crime.

Using someone else’s photographs without their consent is considered stealing. Stealing is a crime and punishable by law. If you steal any image on or offline, you are committing a federal crime and are subject to appropriate punishments.

Unfortunately, it is very rare that someone gets arrested/ fined for using someone else’s work. Instead, they get sued, usually by the photographer or large companies.

Large companies are able to defend themselves against copyright infringement.  However, small photographers and artists are often unable to afford the legal costs to protect themselves.

Locally; a Lebanon women, Danita Cahill, discovered she was a victim of a copyright Infringement. In February of 2012, the freelance writer and photographer was alerted to the fact that an image she had taken was being used on a decorative tile for sale for $12 at a New Mexico truck stop.

Cahill immediately starting investigating and found that the company selling these tiles, Sun and Fun Specialties, wasn't the company at fault. They told her that Rainbow Trading Company of Dallas, Texas was the manufacturer of the tiles. Rainbow Trading company owner, Paul Kim, said he had bought the image along with about 100 others from a woman who said she paid for the images and got them off a website.

Kim said he would get Danita the woman’s contact information and get back to her. The article, which was originally published in the Albany Democrat-Hearld,  was never followed up on.

This situation is a reminder that copyright infringement can happen in your own back yard and how vulnerable your images are to theft when online.

Although I don't have a personal experience with someone stealing my images, I can't imagine it. As a amateur photographer, the thought of someone taking a image you've worked hard on and claiming it as their own is very angering.

People think that if an image doesn't have the little c, ©, somewhere in the image, that they are allowed to use it and mass produce it as they please. Unfortunately, this is not the case.

Some don't know this but the moment the photographer clicks down that shutter button, that image they've taken immediately becomes their property. They own the rights to that image and any use without their express written consent is illegal.

Some images can be used, legally, through Creative Commons. Creative Commons is an organization that allows creators to express if they wish to release their rights to certain images so that others can use them freely or keep them.

Creative Commons licenses do not replace copyright, but are based upon it.

Co-founder of the Creative Commons, Lawrence Lessig said, "Copyright gives people almost to much protection, There is no easy way to signal 'I don't need all this protection, I am happy to give away some rights'. So we created this technology that makes it easy for artists to signal the kind of rights they are happy to give away while signaling rights they want to keep."

"It facilitates sharing, building, and remixing on top of content where the authors opt in to this more balanced and rational copyright system and it supports the idea of remixing with support of the author," said Lessig.

People need to stop illegally stealing images online. So, next time you go to search for an image on a Google for that research paper, please check and make sure it is legal for you to use it. If not, then make sure that you get the photographer’s permission to use that image or at least give them credit for the image.

--At A Glance--
Copyright Infringement
Do: Check that you can use the image and give them credit
Don't: Pass Google Images off as your own

**http://creativecommons.org/tag/lawrence-lessig**

Profile: LBCC's Danielle Blackwell Juggles Teaching and Coordinating while being Inspiring

Danielle Blackwell helps students Brittany Vandersteen (left) and Kelsey Franich (right) with a question.

Danielle Blackwell juggles teaching and advising all while she is also inspiring to her students, with her sarcastic humor she lights up the room and her students.

Wearing her “Through a healthy body, you build a strong mind” t-shirt, Mrs. Blackwell, who is often referred to most as just Blackwell, commands her Lifetime Fitness and Wellness class, reminding them about their upcoming fitness plan that is due later in the term.

As she presents her lecture to her morning class she tells students to start working on their fitness plan with others around them and she will walk around the room to help. The all get to work and she begins the walk around the room.

Blackwell taught classes for the past few years at West Albany High School before coming to LBCC this year to teach Lifetime Fitness and Wellness and be the Albany High School programs Advanced Diploma program Coordinator and Adviser.

This is the first-year for the Greater Albany Public School's Advanced Diploma program. The program pays for students, who just graduated high school, first-year of college at LBCC.

When at West Albany, Blackwell taught Lifetime Fitness and Wellness along with a program called Peers.

Blackwell help student Amanda Jeffe.

"One of the big things the students had to do was take on a peer that either at risk or struggling in school, and they worked one-on-one with them. Then we did impact days, which were VERY powerful," said Blackwell.

[Impact Days are] a day spent just getting rid of harassment and bullying and finding out that underneath it all we're just human."

"Through that Peers class, Because we were so intimate in it, I crossed a lot of lines as a teacher that you're not supposed to because I did learn their personal life and they learned my personal life."

"We became very close, like a family," said Blackwell.

A student stops her to ask if she needs to finish the rest of a previous assignment. "Nope, you're good! Turn it in," said Blackwell.

In 2007, Blackwell won West Albany High School’s Most Inspirational Teacher award; which is an award in which the students nominate the teachers for. That same year, she also received Oregon Physical Education Teacher of the Year Award.

When asked why she believes she is an inspiration to so many students, Blackwell said, “I think because I relate to them a lot. I don't act older or superior. I'm goofy with them.”

“The way she was with students was incredible because we weren't just students to her, we were actual humans. A lot of teachers lose sight of the fact that we actually have feelings and that we're all different. Mrs. Blackwell never did lose sight of that,” said former student Karla Baum.

“My attitude on life changed after listening to her talk about how life should be. I'm more confident in my actions as a human being, and as a member of society, I feel better about my image than I did before I met Mrs. Blackwell and all around I just love people more."

Past students praise Mrs. Blackwell for being there for them or getting them through tough times. Former student Emmalee Harmon said, “Blackwell was always there for any of us that needed it. She always had open arms and an open heart.”

After finding out her father was diagnosed with cancer, Former Student Kelsea Neuenschwander said “[Blackwell] cried with me. She continually gave me a follow up of, "How are you doing?", and told me not to worry about my homework for her class.” “It made me feel like a teacher actually did care about my personal life and it made school a little less stressful through that time.”

Blackwell teaching her Lifetime
Fitness and Wellness Class.

Blackwell tries to work in her real-life experiences and mistakes she has made into her lessons, “I always give real-life examples, I always share the same battles I had. I've had battles with weight and all those things," said Blackwell.

"When I join weight watchers, I share that with everybody, so they just know that these are the things I've done too. I think it [helps me] become real or relatable [with the students]."

When asked to describe Blackwell, Co-Coordinator and Adviser of the Advanced Diploma Program, Larry Anderson, said, “She is upbeat – positive, communicates that she cares about people, has high expectations for students, has a ton of energy, is driven, has a good sense of humor – likes to laugh and can laugh at life even in tough times, and is a hard worker."

How is she able to juggle everything? “I go a little crazy sometimes,” said Blackwell.

-- At A Glance: --
Danielle Blackwell
Lifetime Fitness and Wellness Instructor, High School Program's Advanced Diploma Program Coordinator and Adviser.
Email: blackwd@linnbenton.edu
Office: T-213