Daniel Nations is sympathetic to users of Web 2.0 tools in his article on About.com entitled "Copyright infringement--the Dark Side of Web 2.0". He understands how easy it is to take articles and images from the Internet which has allowed us to have collaboration on a global scale. But he comments that he wishes users would learn some basic etiquette. Without being critical he offers several possible solutions for new bloggers.
He recommends users and copyright holders use a website called Creative Commons, where users can check for copyright restrictions and holders can post their copyright restrictions and licenses. Users can locate the material they want to use and choose a license, offered by the author/artist, on an ala carte basis. He considers this to be a good solution but acknowledges that it is not commonly used.
For articles, he suggests that users take only a small portion of an article and give a linkback, the URL for the whole article. (Fair use is 10% or less.) He suggests doing the same for images. Good etiquette also dictates that users should use trackbacks to notify copyright holders that the user has quoted or used an image. If the holder objects, the text or image should be removed immediately.
Nations also offers bloggers websites as alternatives to taking articles and images from other peoples' posts. They are Creative Commons Search, Wikimedia Commons, Flickr, and "Top 5 Sites to Find Free Pictures".I agree with Nations that most people don't know they are violating copyright laws because it is so easy to take what you see. After reading this I will be more careful when I show students how to copy and paste text and images, encouraging them to do the same in their own web journeys. This will definitely be part of my copyright unit.
