CTH - Open Access, Open Source, and Digitization (Lesson)

Open Access, Open Source, and Digitization

Open Access

Did you have trouble finding reliable, factual, and accurate resources for research?  Did you open your search engine and type in the a name of an item that you wish to research and just look at what shows up?  You could even use some type of artificial intelligence like Siri, Alexa, or Google Home.  Although these items work, the results are often biased opinions. The best way to find factual, accurate, and tested material is to go to scholarly journals such as an online scholarly database such as LexisNexis, EBSCO InfoTrack or another database but these cost money.  Your school media center, public library or university will have access to these databases but what happens if you do not have access to these? ­GaVS has a school media center as well as your traditional school.

One way to look for free peer reviewed research literature is to use Open Access sources.  There are two reasons why Open Access is important.

  1. Open Access eliminates the price barrier providing free peer reviewed research to anyone.  Of course, if you use the resources, proper citing is required. 
  2. Open Access allows the material to be accessible by anyone.  Digitization of material is easier than ever.

Using credible sources is important to ensure you are getting the most accurate information. Anyone can make a website and voice their opinion.  Here are some considerations to help you check the creditability of a source:

  • Currency of the article/information: Is the information recent?  When is the last time the information was updated?
  • Relevance of the article/information: Is the information relevant? Who is the intended audience?
  • Authority of the article/information: Is the information published? Who is the author? Is the author qualified to write on this topic?  What does the URL say about the author?
  • Accuracy of the article/information? Is this article supported by evidence? Are there typographical errors or grammar errors?
  • Purpose of the article/information? Why was this information published? What was the motive?  Were there political, cultural, religious, or personal biases?

These questions can help you decide the credibility of your sources.  The more creditable your sources, the more creditable your research.

Open Source

Open Source relates to software. Software is basically divided into three parts

  • System software – designed to run the computer hardware parts and the other programs you may have. This would be the operating system and what makes the computer run; an interface.
  • Application software – designed for specific tasks. If you use a word processor, the application software is what makes the word processor work.
  • Programming languages – computer software used by programmers to code specific programs.

 

Software which requires a license is called proprietary.  Proprietary software contains a license and users must adhere to the license or face copyright infringement. 

Open source refers to software which is free to modify, change, and share because it is publicly accessible. Open source on the other hand allows for anyone to use for whatever purpose they choose. This does not mean the source code is free, it means that you get all components of the source code and then you can modify it to fit your needs. 

Why would someone create software and allow others to use it? Innovation.

Let’s look at a simple example.  Someone bakes a great chocolate chip cookie.  It is good but you really do not like chocolate, but you love the macadamia nut.  You get the recipe and instead of making chocolate chip, you replace the chocolate with macadamia.  Your friend wants to try the recipe with caramel and another friend wants to add pecans.  Before long, this one recipe has expanded to multiple type of cookies all because someone was willing to share the recipe.  That is the same way with open source software.

Peer-to-Peer File Sharing

Along with individual data sharing, peer-to-peer file sharing became available.  Peer-to-peer sharing made it very easy to download files.  One of the first big file sharing services was Napster.  Napster allowed individuals to upload music and the music could be downloaded by anyone. 

Let’s look at how Napster’s peer-to-peer file sharing worked. Chris purchases the song “Yellow Submarine” by the Beatles.  Chris travels a lot, so he uploads the song to the file sharing service so he can listen to the song when he travels.  This was perfectly legal.  Now John is looking at the file sharing service and he see the song “Yellow Submarine” and decides that would be a song he enjoys so he downloaded the song free of charge and begins listening.  John’s download is illegal because he did not provide proper compensation.  When Napster was sued, Napster argued they were just the medium meaning they  “housed” what others uploaded.  Napster claimed that the real criminal was people like John who downloaded music that was not theirs.  This was true because John did not provide compensation to the owners of “The Yellow Submarine.”  When the case against Napster was decided, the courts stated Napster had enabled the technology that allowed the copyright infringement. Napster eventually filed bankruptcy.  

Although Napster lost the copyright suit, the technology was now there to allow others to figure out ways to do similar things.  Examples today are Spotify, Pandora, Netflix, Apple, Hulu, etc.  Some such as Spotify, Pandora, and Netflix offer monthly subscription services and others such as Amazon and Apple charge low prices.  These companies are allegedly paying royalties for the songs. 

Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)

Now let’s talk about the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) – the law, written in 1998, criminalizes the production and distribution of technology that tries to work around the Digital Rights Management (DRM) tools.  The DRM is designed to protect copyrighted material by preventing unauthorized redistribution and restrict the ways the data can be copied after the purchase. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) allows for a copyright owner to send takedown notices to services and/or individuals who are distributing copyrighted works.  If the request is a violation, the service or individual must remove the content or face legal action.  

What do you think are problems or concerns with the Digital Rights Management? Below are a few. You may come up with more.

  • Takedown notice may or may not be a true copyright violation. 
  • The sheer number of takedown notices received is hard to manage.  In 2019, Google had an estimated 75 million takedown notices. 
  • Disability aides such as screen readers may not work under DRM. 
  • Companies owning the copyright material may put “tracking” software without user knowledge. 

Digital Millennium Copyright Act Video

Copyright Review Self-Check

Match the words and definitions in the activity below.  To check your answers, click on the check mark in the lower right hand corner.