Pictures That Lie

I chose the picture of the mythical jackalope. I had never heard of this fictitious animal, and at first thought it was real when I saw this photo! The picture originated from a Colorado postcard. Antlers were added to a photo of a rabbit to achieve this effect. It was manipulated in order to "create" a new species of animal. This manipulation is not harmful as long as the viewer knows there is no such animal as a jackalope, and that the picture has been altered.

Center for Learning and Technology

On Thursday, our computer class visited the AT&T Center for Learning and Technology. We were given a tour, and learned about many of the aspects of the center that we could use for our courses and personal projects. I thought it would be very helpful to use the Studios to learn how to use a Macintosh computer, as I only know how to work a Windows. Additionally, I realized I could use the photo-editing software for class projects and my own projects. Finally, I thought it was beneficial to learn that the Media Presentation Lab could be used to view and critique projects. I could use this in a lot of my classes if I had presentations to do. Overall, the tour on Thursday was extremely helpful, and helped me become familiar with a part of the library I did not know very well.

Copyright Laws

On Thursday in computer class, we were visited by Jason Hardin, the Manager of Access Services at Trinity University. Mr. Hardin talked about copyrighting and file sharing on a college campus. One of the issues which Mr. Hardin discussed was whether or not copyright laws stifled or encouraged creativity.
Copyright laws encourage creativity by guaranteeing security to an individual when they come up with something new. One does not have to worry about sharing their ideas, as they are protected by government recognition. This makes people more likely to share their new ideas because they will not be stolen. Others can then benefit from the newly introduced ideas and come up with their own original thoughts.
Some might argue that copyright laws are stifling, and make people nervous that they might "get in trouble" if their idea is too close to someone else's. Though this might discourage people from sharing their ideas, I think overall copyright laws are beneficial and necessary. Without them, no one would be able to be responsible for or in control of their ideas.

Copyright Laws by Abby Talley is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at abbytalley.blogspot.com.