Ethical and Information Policy Issues

For this week's readings I first looked at the LibraryLaw Blog.  I certainly see how helpful this blog would be in terms of different legal issues that come up where it concerns libraries, but I just could not stay focused on what I was reading, probably due to my dislike of legal jargon.
I did however enjoy the talk that Elizabeth Stark gave.  I found her discussion on copyright issue to be really interesting and especially pertinent to libraries.  Her comparison of physical property to intellectual property gives a good understanding to the relationship between the two and provides a good definition to what exactly intellectual property is.  She delved right into the issues of copyright, which in simple terms she describes as an exclusive right creators have to their work.  The little bit of history Stark provided on copyright was interesting and something I was unaware of (especially the stuff concerning Disney and Steamboat Willy).  One thing Stark kept going back to was the fact that copyright as it is now was created for the world of the printing press and not the digital world and especially not digital goods.  As copy right law is now, everything someone creates online is technically copyrighted, whether they want to be or not.  So something I write in an email is technically copyrighted, which is a bit crazy.  So comes some issues for libraries such as when things are available for the public domain, copyright on ebooks, open access, etc.
The article on privacy and technology seems to be one of many that are starting to come out as social networking sites continue to dominate our lives.  This, like some of the others, covers a lot of the basics like the relationship between teens and not using privacy features versus adults being particularly concerned about privacy.  Of course despite the privacy issues, libraries must continue to use social media as that is where their patrons are connecting.  The whole issue of protecting patrons' privacy is always a concern for libraries, but it reaches a whole new level when the internet is concerned especially when the library cannot always do much to protect it.  However, librarians can advise patrons on what their privacy options are in order to keep their information private.