Friday, April 27, 2007
Well i got into a bit of a fit today when i found out that my notes that i created for the parents workshop were rejected for printing. The admin felt that it was an infringement of the copyright protection law. It was a course on creating a Yahoo account and to teach the parents all about emailing. I print screened the steps but i did not take any pictures so i felt that i did not infringe the law.
It was seriously disappointing cos i put in alot of effort in creating the notes and it was a step by step guide on how to create an email address. And i did not lift any passages from any websites. Furthermore i felt that Yahoo, being a public domain, will not come under the copyright protection law. To prove my point i went online to search for the laws and came up with my prove. Problem was, it was the US law not Singapore. They are totally fine with using print screens to come up with a manual and distributing it when it comes to public domains. However my HOD called the IPOS...Intellectual property of Singapore..i think..and they claimed that it is an infringement. I was kinda pissed at that. I mean cmon...how secretive is yahoo..the whole world knows it...how can i possibly be "stealing" by print screening the steps. The US allows it...i bet some other countries allow it too.
I feel that Singapore should change its Copyright Protection laws and make it more detailed. By restricting alot of things, the ones affected are those seeking knowledge. For educational purpose i feel that it is totally alright to do such a manual. The parents find that the notes are useful and they kept asking me for the notes. I did not know how to answer them. The admin could have closed one eye and could have just printed for us instead of making it hard for us. We are educating the parents so that the parents will educate their children. We do know what is wrong and what is not. What to take from the net and what not to. Keep having such laws and u will see more and more ppl migrating..oops did i say that...shit i am screwed!
