Copyright Law and Public Domain Day
2 min read
By Camryn Hetrick
On January 1st it is national copyright law and public domain day, now these are two different things that are celebrated but they are very similar. To start off, what is copyright law? The copyright law is the legal ownership of original work. It’s so people don’t have the right to copy or take credit for someone else’s work. Now public domain is public so it’s not subject to copyright law. On January 1st we celebrate to show appreciation for the role the copyright law plays and encourage people to support and uphold the copyright laws. On January 1st the work that doesn’t renew their copyright license goes into the public domain. Which is why they celebrate national public domain day as well.
When interviewing Jonathan Sadler he said, “I think copyright is helpful for huge companies like Disney so their characters can be protected from being stolen by others. Public domain is helpful for smaller companies because if something doesn’t have copyright, they can easily use it and not get in trouble for using it.” When interviewing Mr.Dupaly our Digital Advertising and Technology teacher here at Lenape Tech. When asking him about what he thinks on copyright and public domain he said, “It’s an important topic our students and content creators need to understand.”
It’s important to know where to look for public domain photos and how to tell the difference between what has copyright law and what doesn’t.
