3.3.) Infringement of copyright

When I set up my web page I used several pictures and text written and formatted by myself. The text as it was produced by myself does not constitute any violation of copyright. Different is the situation in respect of the pictures.

The first picture is are three painted bananas loaded down from the net. Furthermore I used a photographed salad prepared on a dish. A cartoon figure from Joe Bartons web page tutorial and a painted can of motor oil. All also downloaded from the web.

There are two laws which have to reviewed in respect of violation of copyright and eventually compensation of damage. The first one is the copyright regulation itself.

With the bananas, the salad, and the motoroil can no copyright note was attached. It might still be possible to claim copyright but the note would be required in order to sue for any damage compensation.

With Joe Bartons cartoon cook the situation is different. There is a copyright notice attached to the tutorial as such not only copyright is violated but even a damage compensation might be claimed.

In this case the fair use condition has to be checked also. This is made up of the following conditions:

1. Purpose of use non-profit educational or commercial
2. Nature of the copyright
3. % of violation
4. Reduction in market value of copyright.

As purpose was non profit, the % of violation was minor (only small part of tutorial), and the market value of the tutorial is probably only little reduced by the use of the cartoon no damage might be assumed.

Nevertheless to avoid any doubts we are going to remove Joe’s chef immediately and replace him through a German chef, who will be cheaper in a law suit.

Furthermore by resizing and only using parts of the picture the original copyright law might have been taken out of effect.


When a student is using the Curtin university logo the situation taking Curtin’s copyright and intellectual property policy into account would be as follows.

1.) The Curtin university logo is a design which can be protect as intellectual property by the design act 1906.
2.) The design has been created by astaff member or by an external party, e.g. a web designer, as a commissioned work for Curtin University.
3.) Curtin claims the intellectual property of such work as clearly stated in the copyright and intellectual property guidelines of Curtin University.
4.) Both staff and students are requested to respect these guideline and not to use Curtin University intellectual property. (This might not refer to scientific work cited in the normal way, but to work used for commercial purposes or purposes extending any scientific use).
5.) The option for the student in order to get permission of using the Curtin University logo would be to apply to the intellectual property committee.
6.) If the student does not get permission upfront Curtin University might take disciplinary action, sue the student for damage resulting from intellectual property infringement and additional might get an legal order forcing the student to restrain the student from further use of the logo.

3.2.) The 5 most important things for writing on the web

Actually by reading through the texts from Nielsen, not only the 1997 text but the others also, I found reflecting on my own reading style and behaviour in respect of web pages and e-mails a lot of congruence.

The first thing is clearly I have a tendency to scan a web page, and I normally read words marked in colour or bold letters and with bullet points attached. So rule no. 1 would be for me:

Highlight important key words of the text.

I have further a tendency to dump web pages, which go across several pages as I find reading such a long text on a computer screen exhausting and inconvenient.

Use short paragraphs which in itself provide all necessary information.

A tendency to use marketing speech by using superlatives or flashy adverts undermines credibility and gives in my personal impression the page a strong commercial appearance.

Avoid exaggerating and marketing speech for an informational text.

Links offer a convenient way to provide background information and certify own views but supportive other sources, but to much links are also just distractive.

Links used in reasonable numbers help to extent informational depth and reliability.

I like texts which come to the point and give me already in the first paragraph a good idea about the topic.

Put a concise summary upfront and get later on into more detail.

Coming from these advises the research undertaken by Nielsen clearly still holds. A problem which today with broadband internet is probably reduced are waiting times as downloads are much faster today.
Also web design is much more professional today, taking into account much more of these “web page ergonomics” then in former.

3.1.) Web Page Experience

The set up of the web page was a very positive experience and did not pose any problems. O.k. I did not create a very senseful web page but this is probably in line with a quite nihilistic attitude.
What I found a very tedious process was the upload of the web page to the presentation area. As I had an error in the title line the wizard could not recognize the index.htlm file. So I tried for ages until I finally reviewed the code to realise my error.

When I had the web page finished and then even uploaded I felt like the master of creation – simply great.

I like the blog thing but is more restricted in hindsight of the creative elements. This is something I can find in a web page, where I can play around with colours, fonts and attachments. This is somehow a bit more in line with my personal nature. O.k. it takes longer to work with html then writing a block.
I positive aspect of blogging is that one can get comments so that there is a direct feed back provided.