Our class session on Thursday was a productive and enriching experience. Naturally, holding class outside was a great change of pace that I think we should continue with. The warm weather certainly helped fuel discussion. Aside from that, the talk itself brought up interesting points about copyright in general, specifically with the issues of merchandising. Granted, major franchises such as Start Wars and Harry Potter produce much sales through the books and movies alone. However, when one stops to think about it, the merchandise associated with these two phenomenons is what truly makes them powerful. The money associated with these products must truly be enormous. It is then easy to see why licensing rights are so important. They can make the difference between millions of dollars.
I found the discussion about how to cite facts about Lafayette to be really interesting during this discussion. I didn’t know that it could be considered common knowledge. Interestingly enough, I included facts in my essay about Lafayette. I got some of the statistics from the US News and World Report. After the discussion, I wasn’t sure if I needed to cite it, but I still aired on the side of safety.
Class outside was definitely a nice change. And I agree the fact that Star Wars was able to pay for its movies through merchandising is crazy.