Friday, June 27, 2008

exon & copyright

In my efforts to learn these little words (not to stave off dementia, or become more clever, but because I want more versality to achieve better scores in word games) I've built on dictionary searches with image searches.

Today I found an excellent image that helps me see and remember what an exon is (and learned more about gene structure and splicing along the way). I'd like to share it using kwout, but that image was closely marked with a copyright notice and it prompted me to reconsider whether the link and reference to source provided by kwout is enough to abide copyright law?

Lessons I learned at school and uni about 10% for study and citing references I'm sure don't come close, and I was never sure about use of others' images or diagrams for school assignments.

How does it work here? As yet I'm not sure. Let me track the places I stopped to think:

The first article I discovered by Wesley Fryer was interesting (he cited a YouTube video Privacy Issues, Photos, and the Internet, and discussed how not to make the mistakes that were made in the Chang case) but not quite what I need.

However Wes' Winter 2003 article in TechEdge, “Copyright 101 for Educators” could be more informative. First point to stand out:
His description of fair use seemed relevant and similar to what I've read before on copyright in Australia, but then I realised I needed to access Australian information.... so:

Australian Copyright Council Information...

Apparently, copyright material might, in some very specific situations, be used without permission...

Aside from the circumstances for libraries, educational institutions and government there is fair dealing (summary of which I kwout from wikipedia instead of the Australian Copyright Council because I could only find it in pdf at ACC)

Important subsequent points were that
  • "each and every such use for research or study must be evaluated individually to determine whether it is fair";
  • "Among the criteria used to determine the fairness of a use are the purpose and character of the dealing, the nature of the work, the possibility of obtaining the work commercially within a reasonable time, the effect of the use on the potential market for the work or on its value, and how much of a work is copied.";
  • "There is no special exception that allows you to use a work without permission just because it is used for a nonprofit purpose."
Hm, so maybe I could print a copy of diagrams or images for me or my children to study, but: even if kwout links to the source, the act of internet re-publishing (even by a tiny blog with a known readership of two [including me]) an image which does not have an appropriate Creative Commons licence would seem to be in breach of copyright.

I'm looking forward to the Copyright unit I'll be taking in July.

So, in the meantime, as I've not heard back from the source, I'm going to avoid the risk and not kwout the copyrighted sketch of an exon.

But then there was another image - a 3d colour image that was interesting if not particularly explanatory... it had no copyright notice; but being hypersensitive now I won't post that one either because it didn't have a CC license.

So, all I'm left with is words:

Friday, June 20, 2008

Vocab: ANOA

So, my latest research to nibble away at the enormous wealth of words I don't know yet:

ANOA:



Flickr tells me that I could see one if I plan a visit to the San Diego Zoo or Zoo Leipzig.

Codex Seraphinianus

or: the serendipity value of working at a different computer


As I didn't want to shut down the game I have on my own computer, and as the boys are away for the weekend, I thought I'd use one of their computers to get some work done.

Of course none of my browser tabs are homepages here, nor am I automatically signed in to the tools I use most frequently, so: on accessing my protopage I land at the public index page rather than my usual private start page. That's fine, I'll do a crossword, study a chess tactic and maybe play with or edit or refresh some of the widgets.

Oooh what's this on the Article of the Day widget (provided by The Free Dictionary)?



Sounds interesting. Perhaps I'll see if I can look at it next time I'm near the State Library of South Australia.

Has any reader seen it and want to tell me what you thought?

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Sensible RSS diet management

Martin Belam offers some excellent suggestions for managing RSS feeds to minimise the risk of information overload, atRSS Feeds: Managing the Mechanism.

I like the suggestion to use an audition folder - putting new feeds on trial - see whether they really give value for my reading time.

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