Copyright Laws

I think that I have mixed feelings about copyright laws. Most of the time, I find them annoying, because they require me to go to so much extra work. This is especially true as a historian, where you must cite every little source that you use or even look at. This can make copyright laws pretty annoying. However, I do see why they are good. One thing that we talked about in class last time, which I had never thought about before is that copyright laws encourage innovation and creativity. I believe that it would be very difficult for historians to make any progress in history if we were all just copying each other and saying the same thing over and over again. One other thing that I also find annoying is that we must cite all images, especially those found online. This bugs me, again, because it is such a hassle. However, I do recognize that it is important to give credit to those who do/create something.