Topic Twelve: Electronic Civil Liberties

Lecture

This weeks lecture by Adam 'addressed' the whole issue of free software. It was basically him promoting Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and Creative Commons, two organisations he is affiliated with. The EFF's tagline is "Protecting and promoting on-line civil liberties". It tries to protect and inform consumers of injustices in the online arena. Creative Commons is an interesting sounding idea. It sits somewhere between complete copyright and free source information. It allows an artist (music, film, visual artist) to have some control over how their works are distributed and shared amongst the public. It allows them to retain some control, but allows easier distribution and circulation to interested parties. We also were told about the emergence of more and more free software available to consumers. Software designers are creating products that either rival or surpass those created by electronic software giants. The main advantage with free software in the form of open source software is that it can be adapted and changed to suit your needs for it.

Tutorial

In this weeks tutorial allowed me to catch up on my blogs that I hadn't given enough attention, and most importantly to tweak my assignment to make sure all of the references were correct and up to standard. I did get to think about my personal electronic civil liberties, and also how I would feel if someone took my artistic property and circulated it without my permission, or altered it in a way that i wouldn't approve of. The idea of creative commons does have certain appeal though to get your work out into a public arena, allowing the work to gain recognition, which certainly is a good thing if that's your desired intent. I guess it would depend on whether you wanted the work to stay in designated circles or you wanted to get it out to the largest possible audience.