Lili onMason

Professor Cafferata has a digitized copy of a Calvin and Hobbes comic at the top of the syllabus on the class website. The question is whether this violates Copyright Laws or falls under the Fair Use Doctrine. To determine if the use falls under the Fair Use Doctrine, you have to consider four factors: the first is what the nature of the use is, the second is the nature of the copyrighted material, the third is the amount being used compared to the size of the original work, and the last is what the effect of the use will be on the profitability of the comic. The Calvin and Hobbes comic is being used in a nonprofit website being used to educate student on the nature of Digital History. The comic being used only consists of four panes. While this may be all of the panes that this particular storyline  contained, it does not compare with the many more panes that exist. Finally, the use of this comic is not interfering with the original author’s sales of his comics. For  all these reasons, I do not believe that the comic violates Copyright Laws;  its use falls under the Fair Use Doctrine.

When I was searching for two primary sources that taught about the history of Washington D.C.,I located a map, Bird’s-eye-view of Washington City, D.C., and a newspaper article, Schools for Freedmen. I will discuss both below. “Bird’s-eye-view of Washington City, D.C.” is a map drawn by George A. Morrison in 1872 and was published by W.H. & O.H. Morrison. The map, located at the Library of Congress, depicts a “bird’s-eye-view” of the Washington DC, with the Capitol building being the dominant landmark. The map is not drawn to scale and depicts what the District looked like at the time. Close Analysis of the map shows that it includes a legend which identifies land marks such as the Botanical Gardens, the Smithsonian, the newly completed Washington Monument, the Potomac, and Georgetown University, among others. While researching the map and its author, I found it appeared in the 1876 edition of “Morrison’s Stranger’s Guide for Washington City.” Based on this, this map was probably drawn to help tourists find their way throughout the Capital.  I researched the map, Morrison, and the book it was published in, but failed to find anything more.

“Schools for Freedmen,” (pictured on the upper left corner) is an article written in the newspaper, Harper’s Weekly, on 30 March, 1867. According to the New York Public Library, this newspaper was an illustrated magazine which covered politics, the military, and cultural stories.  The article did not include a byline.  The author wrote how the newly “freedmen” of the south had begun to make strong efforts to educate their children. The author speaks of schools being built. It highlights a school that was built near Washington DC whose dual purpose was to provide primary education while simultaneously training the children to farm. With that aim, the school was built on a farm of one hundred acres. A picture of the farm was also included in the article. The author had an obvious favorable bias on the situation. Other websites, such as npr.gov, verify that schools for former slaves were built in or near DC. Further research showed that many great schools for African Americans were built in DC, schools including Howard University. Both sources were difficult to work with. This was probably due to their age. I tried searching for more information to further contextualize, or corroborate the information found, but I was not able to find much.

A Little Information About Me

My name is Lilian Heslop. I was born in Chicago. I joined the military when I was 17 years old and served in the U.S. Army for a little over 5 years. I lived in Washington State before moving to Virginia in  April of 2008. I have two young sons and have been married to a wonderful man for 9 years. This is my first semester at GMU. I transferred here from NVCC.

How I Use Digital Media

When I typed my name into Google, Bing, and Yahoo, the only results pertaining to me was my Facebook page, and personal information from the white pages. I have virtually no on-line presence. I use the internet for research. I often use the college on-line databases when researching papers for school. I use the internet for entertainment. I like to watch interesting YouTube videos. I also use Netflix’s instant streaming to watch movies and TV shows. I use websites to try new recipes. I love to bake and frequently use http://www.joyofbaking.com/. This website, by Stephanie Jaworski, has a lot of interesting baking recipes, and many have demonstration videos. I also use the internet to keep in contact with my family. I do this through text, Facebook, Face Time and Skype. I like to shop on-line for goods and services such as movers and mechanics. I frequently rely on reviews from websites like Yelp in order to make an informed decision when shopping. My on-line activity is greater than I expected it to be.