3-1. Digital Products and their Licences Ver. 2022.03.31

Consider The Following...

To begin, please answer the questions in the Google Form below. Your responses will be anonymous. When you have finished answering, please review the other learners' answers.

In this lesson, we will gain an understanding of the culture of creation and sharing of digital expression, and learn perspectives on the appropriate use of materials and works shared by creators. Once you have finished this lesson, please "evaluate" what you see here one more time.

Doing so will allow you to compare the "you" from before and after you have engaged the key question of each lesson. What is important is that you experience this learning process for yourself. When doing so, please remain aware of any changes to your vocabulary or perspective that have come as a result of this lesson.

What Is Digital Expression?

Digital expression refers to a wide variety of computer-generated expressions. This includes texts, photos, video works, websites, applications, etc. that are available on the Internet, among others.

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Creative Acts and Copyrights

We all use digital software in our daily creative activities. With the development of technology, we live in an age where anyone can easily create and freely publish works.

For example, we can edit photos and videos and share them on social media sites, or publish presentation materials on the Internet. Creations produced in this way are automatically subject to copyright (the right to license or prohibit the use of copyrighted works).

The copyright holder is granted "moral rights: the right to protect the author's moral interests (not to be mentally 'harmed')" and "copyright (property rights): the right to license or prohibit the use of the work (to protect the author from being economically 'harmed')" [Reference: "Content of Author's Rights" by Agency for Cultural Affairs].

This prevents a third party from copying or stealing your work without your permission and allows you to receive compensation for selling your work.

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The Gap Between the Digital Society and Current Copyrights

Copyright is the right to grant or prohibit the use of a work. This has created a "permission-requiring culture" of authors.

However, with the spread of the Internet and an era in which anyone can reproduce copyrighted works, the inconvenience of a "permission-requiring culture" has become conspicuous.

For example, copyrighted materials are now distributed as data on the web as opposed to the older media of books, CDs, and DVDs. This has led to an overwhelming increase in the number of situations where copyright is applied in daily life.

Yuko Noguchi states the following in "Copyright in the Digital Age".

"Digital technology has made it incredibly accessible to copy, modify, and upload various copyrighted works to the Internet. Digital technology is about how to copy and remix data quickly and easily without degrading the quality of the data, and network technology is about how to deliver data quickly, cheaply, and reliably. Therefore, it is only natural that as these technologies develop and spread, the use of copyrighted works will, in a sense, become more familiar, and the world will be flooded with the use of copyrights. (...) The vectors of digital technology, which promotes reproduction and distribution, and copyright, which prohibits it, are completely opposite."

Also, Dominique Chen, in "Guidebook towards building a Free Culture," states.

"Copyright (...) protects authors from theft and plagiarism of their work, but at the same time prohibits others from learning about the work, spreading it to different people, and creating new works from it. As a result, common practices in today's Internet world - such as blogging or social media posting of a work without the author's permission, or creating a different work as a tribute to that work - are potential violations of copyright. "

Therefore, there is a misalignment between digital technology, which promotes the reproduction and distribution of information, and copyright law, which requires permission from the author.

In order to resolve this discrepancy between the digital society and copyright law, for example, a legal tool called the Creative Commons License (CC License) has been developed.

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The Author Designs the Future of the Work

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons licenses give everyone from individual creators to large institutions a standardized way to grant the public permission to use their creative work under copyright law. From the reuser’s perspective, the presence of a Creative Commons license on a copyrighted work answers the question, “What can I do with this work?”

The CC license is a concept in which the author "designs the future of the work" by providing a set of terms for the work and its use. The author considers how they wants their work to be distributed, and grants a license with an appropriate combination of four different conditions. Users are free to use the work as long as they follow the author's conditions. The following video (3 mins) gives an overview of the CC license.

*You can choose English subtitles from the video's subtitle panel.

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A Culture of Creation and Sharing

The culture of creating and sharing with Creative Commons licenses is developing in a variety of fields, from video and images to fashion and architecture. The following video (4 min 2 sec) introduces you to some of the fields.

*You can choose English subtitles from the video's subtitle panel.

The reference for this lesson, "Guidebook towards building a Free Culture" (Dominique Chen)[Japanese], is provided under the CC license "Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike". The "CC License Case Studies" (pp. 137-216) is a collection of examples of creation and sharing in various genres. The PDF can be viewed at the following link.

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The issue of copyright in the Internet society is still under discussion. On the other hand, if you understand the Creative Commons and other initiatives, you can actively use digital expression. As an entry point for creating digital products, let's start by enjoying the culture of creating and sharing digital expressions and appropriately using the works of creators.

Looking for Photographic Expressions

Let's take a look at the process of finding the best photographic expression for our goal. We will continue with the task and PoV from Chapter 2, "Designing Digital Products," and consider the best expression.

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Assumptions

• Context: An assignment for a class on digital literacy
• Assignment: To create a web article on the theme of subscription.
• Condition: Submit the URL of a web page created with Adobe Creative Cloud Express (formerly Adobe Spark)

PoV Indicating the Purpose of a Web Article

1. I am here for [people who have a thirst for knowledge, who want to understand social changes through everyday examples, and who use subs daily, but are not interested in subs per se].
2. Not [web article explaining definitions and related information about subs].
3. I want to provide [a web article that examines the change in era through subs].
4. Because [for those who are not interested in subs per se, it will be more intriguing to examine the change of era through subs. Also, by examining subs from the perspective of "innovation of meaning," which has attracted much attention in recent years, we can provide a framework for examining social changes based on everyday examples].

Here, we will assume a web page that achieves the above goal, and look for a visual expression that matches the theme of the content.

Let's take a look at the process of enhancing visual communication with the help of photographic works available under an open license (the basic idea is to take the photos yourself, but the main focus of this course material will be on the appropriate use of copyrighted works).

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Considering the Visual Representation You Need

Before you start looking for a photographic representation, you need to decide why you need a visual representation and what purpose it will serve (the same goes for taking your photos). Here, let's consider creating a key visual for the introduction of a web page.

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Exploring the Essence of the Message You Want to Convey

The first step is to clarify the message to be conveyed by the visual representation, taking into account the keywords of the web page. The main thing to keep in mind is to convey your intentions to the audience through visuals alone, without relying on language. To do this, you will need to redefine the essence of the message you want to convey in your own way.

The web page being considered is an article that discusses the changing perception of consumers through subscription services. The theme is the change in consumer perception, and the keywords will be "from ownership to use" and "from tangible to intangible things."

Incidentally, these keywords have a striking rhythm to them, but they don't give a concrete image. This is where visual expressions become useful. By adding visuals to conceptual words, it becomes easier to create a common understanding with readers.

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Replacing with Concrete Experiences and Tools

Then, how can we express the change from ownership to use (from tangible to intangible things) visually? The most typical way is to replace what you want to convey with a concrete experience or tool.

Here, we will focus on subscriptions as an example that symbolizes the change from ownership to use. Subscriptions have drastically changed the music and video services that used to be offered on CDs and DVDs. Let's look at it this way.

• Ownership ("tangible things") → use ("intangible things")
• CD → Apple Music, etc.
• DVD → NETFLIX, etc.
• DVD → Adobe Creative Cloud, etc.
• Books → Kindle, etc.
• Car → Kinto, etc.

I wrote down and contrasted the tools that symbolize ownership (tangible things) and use (intangible things) in multiple genres of services. At this point, let's reset our linguistic brains and focus on conveying the intended message through photos alone. How can we communicate this change visually?

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Considering How to Present Visual Expressions

Here, you can refer to the module structure of the Adobe Creative Cloud Express page "2019 Graphic Design Trend" discussed in "1-2 Observing Digital Products."

First, a keyword is presented, and then three related images are shown on a full screen. This could be used to express the theme of "From Ownership to Use."

In this case, we will start with a series of visual expressions that show the changes in various services, and when the reader notices the patterns hidden in the multiple visual expressions, we will present the keyword from ownership to use. This is a direction that aims to deepen the understanding of the keyword by presenting the reader with images related to the keyword in advance.

Why should you present multiple visual expressions instead of just one. The key point to consider is whether the message you want to deliver is sufficiently conveyed by a single photo or requires a combination of photos.

For example, let's imagine what happens when we present a picture of a CD and an Apple Music image in contrast to the keyword from ownership to use.

You might be able to convey how playback media has changed in the music genre. However, it will not lead to a generalized understanding of from ownership to use, i.e., an understanding that the same thing is happening in various genres. Therefore, instead of presenting a single example, let's consider showing several specific examples in sequence.

What do you think?

The idea is to use visuals to convey the patterns common to various examples, so that the abstract phrase "from ownership to use" becomes more concrete. In order to achieve this direction, it would be necessary to collect the following pictures.

• CD vs. AppleMusic.
• DVD vs. Netflix/Adobe Creative Cloud
• Books vs. Kindle Unlimited.
• Cars vs Kinto

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Finding Photos

Now that we have decided on the photos we need and the direction we want to take, we can find photos that match our goals. Here, we will collect photos that show the contrast between "CD" and "Apple Music." There are two approaches to finding photos:

1. Using software that has a built-in image search function
2. Using a website that shares images and content

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1. Using Software that Has a Built-in Image Search Function

Some software has the ability to search for images that can be reused. For example, Adobe Creative Cloud Express, a software that makes it easy to create web pages, has a built-in image search feature.

The following video (4 min 42 sec) shows how to search for and incorporate Creative Commons-licensed photo content into your content from the Adobe Creative Cloud Express (formerly Adobe Spark) work screen.

*You can choose English subtitles from the video's subtitle panel.

When you search for images in Adobe Creative Cloud Express and incorporate them into your content, the credits are automatically displayed on the web page, which is very efficient.

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2. Using Websites that Share Images and Content

One of the more common ways to do this is to go to a website dedicated to sharing images and content, and search for reusable images. In the following video (4 min 38 sec), you will see how to download photos that fit your purpose and incorporate them into your content.

*You can choose English subtitles from the video's subtitle panel.

The following are the six websites introduced here. Each website has its own distinctive characteristics. There are differences in search terms, categories, and the style of content gathered, so you may want to use them for different purposes.

• Creative Commons
• Google Search
• Flickr
• Pixabay
• Unsplash
• Pexels

If you download images from each website, remember to take note of the author's credit and include it in your content.

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Verifying that the Message Is Getting Through

Once you have gathered photos that match your goals, you can actually incorporate them into your content. Use the preview function to see how it will look to the reader and verify that the message is conveyed as intended.

In this course material, we have introduced the process of finding pictures of CD and Apple Music. Click the button below to see a Spark page that also incorporates photos of DVDs, books, and cars. The CD and Apple Music photos selected in the demo video have been reviewed in the process of adding examples of DVDs, books, and cars.

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So far, we have learned how to enjoy the culture of creating and sharing digital expression, and how to appropriately use the materials and works shared by creators. Creators should understand how to respecting other creators who share their work. Doing so and using the work appropriately is one piece of digital literacy.