Innis and Copyright

This week we watched two amateur youtube videos.  The videos focused on Harold Innis' communication theory of a time and space binding bias.  Some technologies are long lasting, while others last only for a brief period of time.  Much of today’s technology is considered space binding.  Technology today is not meant to last forever.  Text messages, emails, radio, or many newspapers are objects that last for just a short amount of time.  There are other types of technology and media that are considered time binding.  Time binding technology could be objects such as the original American Constitution.  One of the youtube videos used the Constitution as an example of time binding media.  The Constitution is an object that will last far longer than any text message or email. 

We also discussed the issue of copyright and how important it is to follow copy write laws.  If I’m being honest with myself I have definitely used material without worrying about the issue of copyright.  I think it is so easy to use material that obviously belongs to a company or someone else because it is so readily available.  I could easily search for an image that belongs to a company, find it, copy and save it and post it.  There typically are no consequences for doing this.  As a teacher I realize I cannot use material with copyrite in the classroom without paying some fee.  Saying this, it is often common practice to show movies and use images that are owned in the classroom.