Teaching Week 6

In the lecture of week 6 we were introduced to current and future trends in digital media. We were informed about new distribution models and networks; copyright issues; convergence and, prevailing debates about social media. The lecture also explored how these themes might impact on student work. To sum up the lecture I did some research to find some shorter explanations of the terms introduced.

Intellectual property: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_property)
"Intellectual property is a juridicial concept which refers to creations of the mind for which exclusive right are recognized. Under intellectual property law, owners are granted certain exclusive rights to a variety of intangible assets, such as musical, literary, and artistic works; discoveries and inventions; and words, phrases, symbols, and designs. Common types of intellectual property rights include copyright, trademarks, patents, industrial design rights and in some jurisdictions trade secrets".

Copyright: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright)
"Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time. Generally, it is "the right to copy", but also gives the copyright holder the rights to be credited for the work, to determine who may adapt the work to other forms, who may perform the work, who may financially benefit from it, and other related rights. It is a form of intellectual property (like the patent, the trademark, and the trade secret) applicable to any expressible form of an idea or information that is substantive and discrete".

Patents: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patent)
"A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time, in exchange for the public disclosure of the invention".

Design rights: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_right)
"Design right is a sui generis intellectual property right in British law. There are two types of design rights: the registered right (Registered Design Act 1949) and the unregistered design right. 

The unregistered design right is similar to copyright in that it subsists automatically when a new design is created. However, its length is much more limited, since it only lasts for 15 years. It was introduced into British law by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Design right protects the shape of a three dimensional design. It subsists if the design is recorded on paper, or if an article has been made according to that design. It does not subsist in designs made before the commencement of part of the 1988 Act relevant to design right. It has rules on qualification for protection by both citizenship of the designer and place of the designing. Qualifying countries include the United Kingdom, the rest of the European Economic Area and British overseas territories. 

Design right does not subsist in parts of a design necessary to connect to another article, to surface decoration, to methods and principles of construction or to those parts of a design which are dependent on the appearance of another article, where that article and the article that design right applies to is an integral part of the second article. Design right also does not apply if a design is not original, and a design is defined as not being original if the object so designed is commonplace in the field when designed".

Trademarks: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trademark)
"A trademark, trade mark, or trade-mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization, or other legal entity to identify for consumers that the products or services on or with which the trademark appears to originate from a unique source, designated for a specific market, and to distinguish its products or services from those of other entities".

Infringement: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infringement)
"In a legal context, an infringement refers to the violation of a law or a right. This includes inellectual property infringements such as":

• Copyright infringment
• Patent infringement
• Trademark infringement

Useful links:

• http://www.own-it.org
• http://www.ipo.gov.uk
• http://creativecommons.org
• http://www.mobygratis.com
• http://www.flashkit.com/loops
• http://www.flashkit.com/soundfx

Web 2.0 and Convergence:
"Web 2.0, is loosely defined as developments in technology employed online that enable interactive capabilities in an environment characterized by user control, freedom, and dialogue,... (it) brings a new degree of interactivity and consumer involvement to advertising applications... It truly enables two-way or multiway communication between brands and consumers".

Social Media & Current Debates:

• Privacy rights (Twitter; Facebook)
• Reputation / defamation (Twitter; Facebook)
• IPrights (Twitter; Facebook; Flickr; YouTube)
• Web 3.0 - who is using your data, information, use patterns?

New Distribution Platforms:
Examples:

• Vimeo
• Blip TV
• Flickr / Instagram / Picasso
• SoundCloud / MixCloud
• Spotify (to whose advantage?)
• Aggregator Websites (e.g. CD Baby and more)

This was our last lecture in Digital Media Foundations as the following weeks are dedicated to project development and process.