Archive
Final Project
For my final project, I talked about a impressive Mash up collaberation called super mash brothers. The two guys who made it are Nick Fenamore and Dick Fink from the west coast. They’re mash ups in my opinion are a bit better than girl talk and are fun to listen to. They also went to college near us at JMU.
Downloading Music, Good for Who?
Well I found a website that lists the pros and cons to illegal downloading of music. The pros page looks very good and in quite deep. On the other hand, though, the cons page was very lack luster. This kind of leads me to think this website may be a little bias, but overall, it gave great information on the topic.
On the cons page, which I looked at first, was simple and to the point. It pretty much stated “if you download music, you will get caught”. It also went a little bit into the economics of it. It said how stealing music is a short cut and it will eventually cause prices to rise. I think that’s a good point since apple’s increase of a song from a dollar to a dollar fifty. Overall the cons made valid points that may affect us in the future.
The pros page, I think, made some very interesting points. I think the greatest point that they were trying to make is that illegal downloading only hurts the artist who already have fame and fortune. It actually helps the lesser known artists to gain credibility and boost their sales. Also they go on to say how most of it really doesn’t hurt the artist. It hurts the record companies because they actually have rights to the music.
Looking at this site, there are pros and cons to both sides of the argument. It’s a controversial topic in which everyone has to make their own decision on. I’m still against piracy to the extreme but still don’t think people should get into horrible trouble for downloading a few tracks.
Works cited
Facebook owning our creativity?
In this article I learned something that’s very disturbing. Facebook copyrights every movie, picture, and comment we upload. That mean whatever we put online can be used however they want. They could take a movie or a school project that you uploaded, they could do anything from making a commercial out of it or selling it. So yes ladies and gentlemen, any pictures you’ve uploaded are no longer yours, they’re under copyright of Facebook.
Now what is even better is that they archive everything you’ve ever put on Facebook. So yes, they also have whatever you’ve put on Facebook, ever copyrighted. Our creativity has been bottled up by Facebook. Now, who can we blame for this? The answer is us, we agreed to the Terms of service so they can pretty much do what we want because we gave them permission
After all this scary news we now have to wonder, is this a bad thing? Would Facebook actually hold us hostage because of the terms of service? The answer would be that we defiantly hope not. Facebook said they wouldn’t but personally, I wouldn’t upload anything too important.
Works Cited
1.http://www.plagiarismtoday.com/2009/02/17/the-facebook-tos-controversy/
Patents on Genes? Little Overboad right?
Okay in this article, they talk about how the company Myraid Genetics holds the patents to two genes that cause ovarian and breast cancer. In class we’ve talked about patents on inventions, food, and even life. This is just taking it one step further; I mean what’s next, patent on human beings? I think at this point it’s getting a little crazy.
Now, there hasn’t been a ruling on this case as of yet but what will the outcome open or close to the doors for. If they uphold it, they’re almost saying that putting a patent on anything, including life, is completely okay. I vigorously disagree. Genes are part of nature and don’t belong to anyone. I feel like copyright and patents are getting more and more out of control. I hope in the near future that they will be able to restructure copyright law so things like this will get thrown out immediately.
Works cited
Another Dumb Case of Copyright Infringement
Okay so I came across this article of Senator John McCain is getting sued for copyright infringement for a campaign advertisement. Essentially, Senator McCain is getting in trouble because people in his political party used the “running on empty” by Jackson Browne. Honestly, there are so many things wrong with this picture I don’t know where to start. Firstly, John McCain has almost nothing to do with the creation of the commercial. He’s getting blamed for something he didn’t do. Yes the advertisement represents him but he doesn’t deserve to get in trouble for this. I feel like this article shows that copyright infringement laws are just a way to make money. It seems that every time someone gets sued, they’re either rich or in a position of power. I think that small stuff like this should be fair use. It’s dumb that we live in a world where everyone is out to get your money. At this point they really need to restructure the law so people are not unfairly sued. Works cited 1. http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/02/infringement-ca/
Fail to the Redskins
This podcast, “Redskins insider Podcast”, from washingtonpost.com talks about how the redskins have struggled horribly this season with only two wins so far. Reporter Rick Mace hits off the podcast about discussing how weak the skins offensive line. He talks about how them missing Chris Samuels due to injury will shift up the offensive line and will lead to a failing running game and many sacks by the Kansas defense. Cindy Born then talk about how she doesn’t want to see the skins going for it on 4th down over and over which doesn’t work. She also talks about how we struggle to get across the goal line. The next thing Rick Mace says the “Zorn needs to get control of the game”. He talks about how Zorn, the coach, burned through three timeouts without needing to and didn’t have them for the final drive in the last two minutes. Rick also goes into how Zorn’s play calling is “..Too predictable”. Rick then protects Jason Campbell isn’t the problem with the Redskin’s offense. The blame mostly even over born is with the offensive line. Cindy goes to say that it’s starting to get into Jason Campbell’s head that he doesn’t have enough to go through his progressions. As Cindy says “He looks surprised when he has time”. They then go on to talk about the running back, the anchor of the defense, Clinton Portis. He’s not practicing enough because of injury while he’s also aging. Along with that he has a weak line in front of him. Another problem they start to talk about is the two sophomore receivers. They haven’t been making the catches that they should and have been dropping deep balls. As stated by Rick and Cindy Overall the Skin’s season has been hurt a lot not totally by the quarterback and coach like most people are saying but the offensive line. They then went into fans writing to the program about how bad Zorn and Campbell are. Personally I thought they’d blame one or the other but instead they blame the line. I think it has to do a lot with the play calling and the quarterback not being able to adjust to a system due to the constant change in coaching. Hopefully we can pull off more than a two win season but only time will tell.
Black Eyed Peas Stealing Music?
In this article, it essentially shows how the Black Eyed Peas allegedly stole music from a group named Freeland. Now there are a lot of things that I’ve considered after reading the article. Firstly, is there actually enough proof to say the Black Eyed Peas did steal their music? I’ve just seen two tracks and I feel like it’s a he said she said kind of deal. My other point is that even if they did steal the music, how big of a deal is it?
My first point is that just by reading this and a few other articles, I do not see any proof that sways me in one way or the other. The tracks do sound very similar, there’s no doubt about that but I still think there needs to be more proof to sway me, let alone a judge and jury. Next, how big of a deal is this? I feel like the Black Eyed Peas song isn’t all that popular and the beat really isn’t all that exceptional. I don’t really think all too much money was lost and Freeland just wants some money out of this.
I’m not too much of a fan of copyright law and this doesn’t seem like it’s all that big of a deal.
Works cited
Lewis Galoob Toys, Inc vs. Nintendo of America, Inc.
I was looking through copyright cases and found an interesting case where a product was invented, and is a complement to an original product. The original produce which was Nintendo, decided to sue Lewis Galoob Toys for making a product called the Game Genie. For anyone who doesn’t know a Game Genie is the same idea as a game shark. It alters the game to help you cheat such as giving unlimited health or unlocking hidden levels.
What I find is interesting is that economically, this should actually help Nintendo sell more games and game systems. Economically speaking, if there a desirable complementary product, it should in turn help boost the sales of the original product. Yes, the Game Genie may tamper with games and make them “easier” but why is it such a big deal. It kills me that a company like that would go out of its way to waste money on a law suit. It doesn’t hurt Nintendo in anyway and probably would help them.
Personally, I’m glad this case got ruled in Lewis Galoob Toys, Inc so that we are able to do what we want with what we buy. It got ruled as fair use and the court stated “Having paid Nintendo a fair return, the consumer may experiment with the product and create new variations of play, for personal enjoyment, without creating a derivative work.” As long as we’re not copying games and such it shouldn’t be a problem and it shouldn’t be illegal.
Works Sited
-Paul Rowane
First Punishment for Copyrighted Material, Does The Punishment Fit the Crime?
I thought this article was really interesting when I read it. It essentially tells us about the first time anyone has really gotten busted for copyright violation. Chan Nai-Ming decided to upload three Hollywood movies to a website that people could see them or even download them using torrent software. The movies were “Red Planet”, “Miss Congeniality”, and “Daredevil”.
Now what I found the most interesting is the punishment compared to the crime. The 38 year old Nai-Ming was sentenced to 3 months in jail for uploading three Hollywood movies. Even worse his bail was set at only 5,000 Hong Kong dollars or $641US dollars. My honest opinion is that they pretty much said that you won’t get in massive amounts of trouble for file sharing online with movies or music. Even though he didn’t profit that’s damaging the revenues for the three pictures he made available to the public. I can argue that Hollywood lost hundreds of thousands or maybe millions of dollars because of this. I mean even me, the common person, could be easily persuaded to get a movie for free online rather than pay the $10.50 it costs to watch it in a movie theater or the $20 it costs to buy it on DVD later.
I personally think that he robbed Hollywood of a lot of money and was only jailed for three months. If governments truly want to stop this epidemic of the illegal download of movies, games and music, maybe they should make it a felony for certain things. I’m not saying make downloading music or a movie a felony but maybe attacking the source rather than the normal consumer. I’m sure if you start laying hefty fines and the threat of making it a felony on the sources, they’d be less likely to put their stuff there. Especially for a high budget Hollywood movie that could be losing corporations hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars. That should warrant a much larger jail sentence than three months.
Works Cited
DBZ Parody, Flashback to the 90’s
This past summer, my friends and I came across a series of Dragon Ball Z parodies on YouTube. Knowing most of us used to, at some point in our childhood, would race home from school every Thursday to catch the new episode that left you on the edge of your seat. Now of course since then we’ve grown up and I even laugh at the cheesiness of the show but do still, to a point, enjoy the story.
The parodies cover the first half of the first Dragon Ball Z season with and I’m sure there are making more. It pretty much takes you from when Raditz knocks Goku on his butt and captures Gohan his son to when Vegeta almost gets killed by the z squad after inflicting much damage to them(sorry to any girls reading this, you are probably beyond lost). The parodies keep to the story but add a lot more humor to it. It’s defiantly gauged to the older teenagers and young adults who watched it when we were younger. It has some swearing and sexual innuendos but not to the extreme so it’s not horribly vulgar.
My point is that is hasn’t been bust and taken down which I’m happy about. These kinds of things really give you a tiny look back at you childhood and the things you enjoyed back then. I think there is nothing wrong with parodies and mash ups like this, especially when the show is ten plus years old and they state they aren’t doing it for profit. Also for all the Dragon Ball Z nerds in the class then enjoyed it as I did as a kid, I hope you enjoy these videos too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj9IdUR7qaw – This is the first http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSj6AeTrSRI&NR=1 – Second of ten and you get the point http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGsRshR6P7w&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sg5-Sdc_nmc&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SefWhi70Qg&feature=fvw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Np7mcHMGZtE&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlZdFLIY41c&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cT0UoRk58M&feature=related – my favorite http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUtaDK7qPN4&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLZhhkNI3cM&feature=related
Mash-Up & Remix: The Hottest F-Sem at M-Wash 