On Tuesday we learned about the differences between the general appearances of a scholarly journal/resource, versus the appearance of a book that is more for popular entertainment. Scholarly sources can be detected through its publisher. Also, they are easier to identify because they are not trying to “sell” necessarily, and therefore have a more academic title and less flashy covers with fewer colors and crazy fonts. This is definitely a practical tool for me because it will help me when I am in the library in the future, or academically when I am searching for a book with reliable information.

On Thursday, we went over research ethics and the importance of not violating copyright infringement.  We learned that a patent is more for an idea or an invention. A trademark, however, is more of a brand name, for example, the Nike swoosh. On the other hand, a copyright is automatically placed on anything that someone writes, and it stands for the authors life plus 75 years. Aside from the facts about copyright, we learned why it is important to cite things. There is a huge list, but a lot of it is to give the author the credit they deserve. I think learning about the use of copyrights was very interesting, and I am glad to know the differences between rights to a name. I think it gives me a better appreciation for the tedious work and time it takes to cite a paper, because I know if I worked really hard to do a study or to gather and compile, I would want to be given credit as well. I will use this information throughout my whole life, since it will always be relevant. I think for academic reasons it is extremely important to stay aware of the issues that exist with research ethics.

I suppose the biggest question I have would be to know why some music can be taken without anyone getting in trouble, does someone only get in legal trouble if the other one sues? The copyright rules are very confusing and I know that the purpose is not to necessarily learn all of them inside and out, but it is interesting to me how sometimes people can be so innocent and naïve but could get in a lot of trouble for copyright infringement.