Reflections

Reflections

            Initially the topic I chose was intellectual freedom which I believed would be an easy topic because there is such a discussion surrounding it currently. However, one of the first things that I learned was that there is such a blur between copyright laws, intellectual freedom, and fair use that sometimes it is hard to keep it all straight. The man issue I was looking at when I started my blog was the hard line or use and receiving credit for your creation and where does it become a legal issue. One example for me was my friend painted some blue birds and she claimed it just was the birds and nature. Well she was selling her art work in a little boutique and someone who worked at Painting with a Twist saw it and said her art work was too close to the one that did at their store. They sent her a letter saying she couldn’t sell that painting. However, when does that encroach on her intellectual freedom to create a nature seen that could close to a thousand other nature scenes? When inquiring specifically into art theft or intellectual freedom with art I believe I made my topic way to specific. Not having a huge selection of articles to chose from that are current was an issue.

            One thing I did locate easy was a continuing education program that was about art theft. It was directed more towards actual physical art theft however, it had some good points about intellectual freedom when it came to artist. With this continuing education program, I put a lot of thought into what further education should or could we offer about intellectual freedom. Believing that this knowledge would help artist, nurses, business people, English majors and everyone in between I believe that universities should start making it a requirement class as part of any basic degree. It is not just knowing the laws to not break them it is also knowing the laws to protect yourself in case you come up with an idea and then someone else tries to profit from it. This class should cover copyright, fair use, and intellectual freedom also with some small sections on plagiarism. Feeling like this would be a much better option than the same plagiarism quiz repeatedly for six years in a row.

            Ultimately, I learned that the differences are so small in between the those main three they all kind of blur the lines. I never did find a concrete answer on whether Painting with a Twist could tell my friend that she could not sell her art work. It also made me wonder I use a pattern for quilting that everyone uses, and I change it to my needs and colors so at what point do changes in the product affect when it become so different it is an original product. Laws need to be written in that specifically address arts. Arts such as painting, crafting, and drawing are up to interpretation so where does it say it is only this way or this person has this bird. There will always be a lot of grey area however, I believe that for artist there needs to be more black and white areas and a little less grey.