Week 06 - Collaboration

Class Format

Todays class covered our legal and ethical obligations in relation to a career in design. The rules are fairly simple; copy what you can, pay for what you can't.

 

Group Exercise

DISCUSSION - Relinquishing Ownership

1. Do you usually think your ideas are the best?
   - A little humility goes a long way, a definite no.
2. Are you shy in presenting ideas?
   - No, ideas are transformative notions. Exchanging them will evolve them. Not being fearful of this process liberates the mind from unrealistic presumptions of ownership.
3. Do you hold back your best ideas?
   - Why would I do that? Holding back prevents communication.
4. Are you happy when others want to change your ideas?
   - Ideas are by nature are transformative. I generally invite other perspectives.
5. Are you totally truthful when you are asked for opinions on other’s work?
   - Context ?
   - Short answer, no.
6. Would you ever present somebody else’s idea as your own?
   - No.
7. Would you borrow just a little bit?
   - Yes / Contact / Enquire / Link & Credit.
8. How would you feel if somebody borrowed just a little bit of your idea?
   - That's cool man, could you 'Contact / Enquire / Link & Credit'?
9. Do you think you have any ideas that are totally original?
   - No, it requires genius or an idiot to have that feeling.
10. Would you feel the same way about that original idea in 30 years?
    - Yes & No. I need to be 30 years in the future to properly answer this question.
11. Does a knowledge of design history help or hinder your idea originality?
    It most certainly helps. 'You Are What You Eat', is a popular idiom which I think of in psychological terms as, 'You Are What You Think'. Anything which enters your mind becomes a part of your mind, this is in fact the process which creates 'memory' (although we still do not know scientifically how exactly this process works).
12. Would you be prepared to sell an idea?
    - How many do you want to buy?

 

Blog Exercise – The Legal Framework / Creative Content

PART 1: UNDERSTANDING THE LAW

Research and blog on the following:

1. The Berne Convention
2. IP (Intellectual Property) legislation in Australia 
3. Australian Copyright Law
4. Creative Commons
5. P2P networks and software licences

The work of designers is protected in Australia by the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). It is also protected internationally by various agreements between individual countries, such as the 'Berne Convention
 for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works'. Created in 1886, the Berne Convention is administered by what in 1970 became known as WIPO “The World Intellectual Property Organisation is the United Nations agency dedicated to the use of (patents, copyright, trademarks, designs, etc.) as a means of stimulating innovation and creativity.” (reference http://www.wipo.int/about-wipo/en/). Today WIPO has 185 member states and manages 24 treaties. Australia has signed 16 of these treaties with the most notable of which being the Berne Convention in 1928, the WIPO Convention in 1972 and the WIPO Copyright Treaty in 2007 (interestingly, when we signed has little to do with when the treaties were created and in some instances decades elapsed between the two events). Domestically Australia inherited the bulk of its copyright law from Britain and our courts relied on the British Act of 1911 until our own was enacted in 1968. Generally copyright law in Australia has had a varied and complex history.

Essentially copyright protection today under Australian law is free, automatic and leaves the burden of proof of ownership with the artist. Should the ownership of copyright fall into dispute it becomes the responsibility of the civil court to discern property right.

Ethically designers are first obliged to follow a code of conduct dictated by the law of the land in which they live. In Australia this obligation is first directed by the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). While fairly comprehensive, there are ambiguous areas which require a tighter form of personal moral conduct. The specifics of these areas are multiple and varied in form making them impractical to detail in this text. My personal general stance is to strictly avoid using anything in my design work which is not exclusively mine and if I do to ask for permission first or at least reference the original author. For me this is common sense and courtesy.

"Creative Commons is an international nonprofit that offers free flexible copyright management tools for creative work." (Reference http://creativecommons.org.au/about/cc). It is a more flexible approach to copyright management than traditional copyright law. It is also an international movement.

Peer to peer networks share data between like minded individuals. In relation to software licences it is usually considered an infringement of that licence to share your software over such a network. Both the act of sharing and obtaining software via these networks deprives the software developer of profit.

 

PART 2: DEFINING YOUR OWN ETHICAL APPROACH

Answer these questions:

1. Is it illegal to copy a design?
   - Picasso, 'Good artists copy, great artists steal'. To copy a design in general is not illegal although there ethical implications. To exactly copy especially specific elements could most certainly result in a copyright infringement case.
2. Is it ethical to sell a non-original design as your own?
   - No.
3. What is the difference between ethics and law?
   - Ethics are your personal moral code. The law is a code of conduct dictated by the state.
4. Do you value others intellectual property the same as your own?
   - Yes.

 

PART 3: APPLYING YOUR CODE

Make a list of 5 behaviour principles you consider essential for each of these:

1. At CDU in the MacLabs.
   - Courtesy, respect, punctuality, politeness and good personal hygiene.
2. Outside class in a social setting.
   - Courtesy, respect, punctuality, politeness and good personal hygiene.
3. In a professional workplace in which you may be employed after studies.
   - Courtesy, respect, punctuality, politeness and good personal hygiene.

 

Research

Video

Here is a video about personal hygiene in the office (source). I found this amusing, I hope you do too and it is also relating to all of the environments mentioned in part 3 above.

 

Images

A pretty picture of the WIPO building found here.

 

Reflection

This class was a fairly dry affair, although essential to have an understanding of. This was also some common ground for me as the topics covered were a repetition of those covered in Semester 1 through the unit 'Industry Knowledge'. For the reason for this I will quote a recent email I received from Mark Hilton, "As assessors we are required to observe you doing Assessment Tasks or gather evidence that you have done these tasks: in a variety of ways, on a number of occasions".