Creativity Strangled

I agree with this notion that we are constantly unaware of what is "legal" when it comes to using things from the Internet. There are so many times when making art that you reference a picture from google or any other search engine. Is this the same as plagiarising a sentence from an encyclopedia when writing a paper? Do you remember when we used encyclopedias. I just realized encyclopedias are obsolete now that we use Internet as our information source. Weird to think about that. Remember all of the info-mercials that sold whole editions of encyclopedias.

I remember when my mom would buy one volume at a time at the grocery store. I think it was each month they sold a different letter volume. This makes me laugh. I used them all of the time for pictures of animals or something to draw, or righting reports in middle school.

Anyway, back to copyright. I do think these "laws" should be changed in some way. I just can't say that I know how to change them.

Being that I am a photographer, and have been walking on egg shells in a sense when it comes to this copyright infringement, I understand where these laws are coming from. I would feel completely violated, and slightly flattered, if I saw one of my pictures being used and was not informed of it. I can't say that i wouldn't use some other picture that is out there on the web for my own artwork though.

I guess we all will have to find a middle ground.