Both “Weblog Ethics” and “10 Myths about Copyright Explained” taught me more about blog copyrighting and ethics for bloggers.
Weblog Ethics
Weblogs seem to be a sticky area when it comes to ethics. Many bloggers, including me, do not know much about blogging ethics. I assumed many things, but was unsure about much of it. I thought that it was interesting to read that journalists have an ethical standard that they follow, almost like it is their responsibility. On the other hand there are bloggers who do not follow any standard and are “proud of their amateur status”. This shows much difference between bloggers and journalists. But many times do we hear that bloggers are the new journalists. It is hard to understand where the line is being drawn between journalists and bloggers.
Ethics seems to be a large part of what differences the two. One quote that was sad, but true was “Rumors spread because they are fun to pass along”. This can be true in many facets of life. We had a discussion in class about how different blogs spread false “death stories” about celebrities or make accusations, when they are even unsure if it is true. This could be the difference between bloggers and journalists because journalists have to make sure it is true before they print it.
10 Big Myths About Copyright Explained
The first of the 10 myths was surprising to me, “If it doesnt have a copyright notice its not copyrighted.” I, like most people probably thought this was true. Little did I know mostly all written material, “created privately and originally after April 1, 1989 is copyrighted.” I had no idea that everything was copyrighted, even if it wasn’t stated. When we get our syllabus for classes and professors tell us about copyrighted material and plagarism, they should mention this to all students. It is not just the websites that have copyright at the bottom of the websites, it is everything that was created.
Will blogging ethics and copyrighting become more strict as weblog popularity increase? How will this change blogging?
What do you think is most important for people to know about weblog ethics, so that more people will be aware of these rules and laws that surround weblogs?
