Outdated copyright

In response to the Steven Colbert / Lawrence Lessig interview on the same topic:

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/215454/january-08-2009/lawrence-lessig.

Very short and simple, copyright law is not out of date. The original artist of a piece should have ownership of their work. Fair Use, however, covers the majority of the remixing issues. A quick overview of Fair Use states that anyone can use any other work in part as long as the original intent of the original work is not lessened by the use. One tricky point, though, is that the new work cannot compete with the old work without permission. This would be considered infringement, as the competition could feasibly lessen the original work's monetary value or detract from sales and profits of the original work in some way.

This last point is the one that should be addressed. There must be some way that the law could be expanded to include non-monetary remixing of works. The key here is that the remix of the work would be non-monetary. The remixing artist, nor anyone else, could not make profit from the original work. In this case, the remixed work would be no different than what fan fiction is to the worlds of screen and print.

In fan fiction, new artists use the characters and/or settings of existing works to create new adventures or scenarios. While this is currently an acknowledged form of copyright infringement, fanfic writers are rarely litigated against as their works are rarely used for profit. Instead, they're looked as publicity, as new readers may stumble across these first and then pick up the original work. They're used as community builders, as more and more writers or contributers create more works, bringing in more fans and creating a greater following.

Remixing should be allowed, but only under certain limitations. Original artists should retain their copyright and their ability to turn a profit from their work, they're the ones that put the time and effort into creating the original work, after all. But a fan should be able to pay homage to their favorite artist by retelling the artist's story, be it audio, video (much more difficult, really), or literary through their own eyes, as long as they're not making money from it. Should a profit be turned, perhaps a royalty system could be devised, and then only with the original artist's permission.

Generation F

The talking points today are taken from this blog:

http://blogs.wsj.com/management/2009/03/24/the-facebook-generation-vs-the-fortune-500/.

Take a look at the link above, it contains a list of the 12 intrinsic values that are embodied in online communities today. Note how they shadow the perceived values of the IRL (in real life) world. These 12 values can be found on any chat board, forum or other online collaboration out there. Combined, they create a natural selection process that pushes these communities forward.

These communities are, for the most part, self moderated. Some users contribute more, others less, some are there only to "troll", or mock and debase the community. The latter are quite often run out by the former.

Of all of the points the author brings up, number 11 struck me the hardest:

"11. Intrinsic rewards matter most.

The web is a testament to the power of intrinsic rewards. Think of all the articles contributed to Wikipedia, all the open source software created, all the advice freely given—add up the hours of volunteer time and it’s obvious that human beings will give generously of themselves when they’re given the chance to contribute to something they actually care about. Money’s great, but so is recognition and the joy of accomplishment."

For those frequenting this blog, you've probably already come across our post titled OpenSource Media and read out views on society and the Marxist model. To clarify, this is the original intent of Marxism, not the perverted form that became the Communism that we know today. List point 11 immediately made me think of this. It's a great analogy, really. Here we have a community that allows the people to contribute what they can when they can toward the betterment of the community at large, and the people are happy to do so because they believe in the community, can see how their efforts make a difference, and enjoy what they're doing because of it.

The other point that really grabbed was number three:

"3. Hierarchies are natural, not prescribed.

In any Web forum there are some individuals who command more respect and attention than others—and have more influence as a consequence. Critically, though, these individuals haven’t been appointed by some superior authority. Instead, their clout reflects the freely given approbation of their peers. On the Web, authority trickles up, not down."

Or the window goes the "good old boys" model. Here we have a true democratic community. The leaders are chosen by consensus on their merits, not because of how much advertising they can afford or how many political favors they can garner. And the more any value community member contributes the more clout they receive.

If both of these points could be combined in the real world, we'd see a much different social structure. The real world, however, isn't ready for this. Online communities work well because they are opt-in, opt-out deals. The real world is not. Life moves on around us, and we all have a role to play in it. These concepts will eventually make their way into society, but not until they've been adapted to compensate for the OIOO issues, and then only when society has reached a point that they can handle such a change.

The Long Tail

This concept is essentially about moving from the mainstream to the obscure. In today's marketplace of limited shelf space, retailers are only able to provide what they consider to be the hottest best selling items at any given time. This leaves a huge segment of the merchandising field un- or under-exposed. The long tail is the combating force. Think iTunes: iTunes is completely digital. As such, they have unlimited shelf space for their product, digital music. They can offer the new release hits from major artists, but they can also provide access to unpublished, out-of-production music from decades ago, or from up and coming artists that would otherwise have been pushed aside. The same is true for Amazon and books and many other businesses out there.

The long tail works on a process of recommendation and desire. If a person happens to like such-and-such, they may also like this-over-here. By referring this way, people move down the tail from the high-selling popular to the long-lost and obscure. Alternatively, if someone is looking for a product that they can't find in stores because it's too old or too obscure, the long tail services can provide access.

This is a great direction for the modern marketplace. First, it's convenient. These services provide access in a moment to more products than a physical store could in a year. Also in this selection, and especially with music services, one can choose á la carte selections from otherwise bulky titles. Second, it's fast. You don't need to browse shelves. You type in your search and the system will find what you're looking for, and likely make suggestions of other items that you may like but would have otherwise overlooked. Third, it's portable. Most (all?) of these services are online, making it possible to carry the stores with you anywhere. This harkens back to point one, convenience, but takes it a step further. There's no longer a need to go physically to a store. You can shop from the bus, the office, home, or the beach and have the items sent to your location of choice.

Podcast

Parceled out internet radio. Gotta love it! Following the theme of the week, I'm taking the convenience angle on this one. How can one not enjoy the ability to carry their favorite radio programs with them in their pocket, re-listening to their favorite episodes at the push of a button? And this is to say nothing of the open market that this provides! Anyone can join this revolution. In that aspect, the podcast generation has tapped into the free airwaves the same way that the original free press flooded the market with literature.

Podcasting allows users to create programs centered around their interests. This outlet has the added effect of inundating the boards with loads of well produced free media that would have otherwise been overlooked for monetary or other reasons. This is perhaps the greatest aspect of the podcast invention. And anyone can do this. You only need a spare minute and some free software like Audacity. Even a microphone is optional if you have a good set of speakers (they are, of course, nothing more than a microphone in reverse, really). Of course, one should have a little creativity and personality, but those are totally optional.

Quiche Florentine Tutorial

This week's blog, or vlog, I should say, is a video tutorial that I made about making a souflé style quiche florentine. Please enjoy! The clip was a little bit long, so it had to be split into two parts. The second is linked in the first's description.

The HTML rambling video blog

This is my attempt at video blogging, or vlogging. The process wasn't as scary as I thought it would be, but, then, I took a page from the You Suck at Photoshop vlog series and chose to do this tutorial-style without me on screen. This is the first time that I've used the CamStudio screen recording software. I found it very easy to use once I got it set up. The only tricky part was defining the custom keys so that I could start and end recording with keystrokes, and this is an entirely optional step. Below, you'll find the wonderful ramblings of the first tutorial that I've ever created. It doesn't go into a whole lot of detail, but it does cover the very basics of creating and styling a web page for those interested. Please forgive the audio sync, it seems that the screen capture lags a little bit behind the audio feed, so some things don't quite match up.

Presentations

After viewing this video clip from Ted.com (http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/92), a few simple and general rules regarding presentations sprang to mind: Humor = Interest, and energy begets energy (in other words, make the audience feel involved).

The first rule applies to most presentations. Laughter, and by extention humor, is almost a universal language. If a presenter can make his audience laugh, then he's broken that proverbial ice. This allows the viewers to feel involved, opens them up to the information that follows, and makes the presentation much more enjoyable. There are, of course, times that this is difficult or inappropriate. A somber funeral may be a case of the latter, though I've seen enough eulogies artfully employ humor to lighten the mood to say that it is not always the case. A dry report of statistical facts may be an example of the former, though the Ted.com presentation certainly proves that humor may be employed if the venue is right.

The second rule, energy begets energy, simply means that it behooves the presenter to try to make the audience feel involved. Not only does this bypass the boredom that sitting through a lecture can cause, it also actsw to open the audience up to actively listening to the presentation rather than zoning out and "doldrumming" it.

A presentation that effectively and appropriately incorporates these techniques will almost always be more effective at imparting its point to the masses. By engaging the audience, audiences will retain more information, making the experience more successful for both the watchers and the speakers.

Kindle, revisited

For anyone out there following this blog, you'll know that I've already weighed in on the Kindle situation in a previous blog (for thos who haven't, see here: Regarding the Kindle). A quick summary, by way of refresher: the Kindle is an electronic book downloading device that uses Amazon to purchase and display digital copies of books. This technology has been heralded as the greatest new thing in the publishing world as well as the spawn of Satan in regards to the potential damage it may cause to the privacy of reading and love for the written page. The newest version, Kindle 2, now has the ability to read the stories to you in a variety of voices.

It is this last innovation that has the writing world up in arms, though I am of two minds on the matter. The issue is that authors and publishers normally get a piece of audio book sales, as well as a portion of written work sales. In this case, the written work royalties are paid, and the audio portion is essentially handed out for free, as the Kindle 2 is bypassing the need for a second audio book sale. My first reaction, after viewing a sample of the automated reading on Youtube, was that I would in no way want to use the current incarnation of the audio text. The voice is too choppy and sounds too electronic. However, Roy Blount Jr., president of the Author's Guild, brought up some good points in his recent NY Times Op-Ed article The Kindle Swindle. He mentions IBM's new voice technology that is virtually indistinguishable from the normal human voice, going so far as to include the subtle hmm's, ha's, sighs, and throat clearing that a human reader would provide. This made me worried. This could actually pose a problem.

I'm not really sure how all of this is going to impact the publishing world right now. I am concerned that the audio version will call for a revisiting of the audio book royalty issues. Perhaps the issue is solvable via the micropayment process. Perhaps a small fee could be charged to the Kindle user to access the text-reader functions on a per-use basis. But how does this leave the end-user? Do they have to pay each time? Does it get charged for each cover-to-cover reading, and how would one track this? Luckily, I'm not the one that has to answer this. I will be following the media in hopes of seeing this to an equitable conclusion.

Cell Art & Literature

Now here's an interesting concept. Not that it's entirely new, it's just a new incarnation of the older schools, really. Cell phone art and literature, when broken down to their most basic forms, are really nothing more than the new digital versions of the artist's sketch pad and the writer's journal. Of course, with the new technology comes some interesting perks, such as a huge multinational instant audience ready to read or critique your work.

I think it's great that this exists now. Think about all of the budding artists, casual and professional alike, that have the opportunity for worldwide exposure! Then again, there is something to be said for the old tried and true methods. The professional editor and publishers are being bypassed with this new literature movement, and the same can be said of the art critics, thereby removing a filter through which the shoddier works previously had to pass. But, perhaps this filter isn't needed. Maybe we've been losing many great stories and paintings that we otherwise would not have seen.

AP & the Obama Poster

I have to admit that I was of split mind before I started into the articles Lisa provided for us. As an artist, I wouldn't want anyone sampling my work without permission. However, I can understand the importance of using reference works and the need to be able use them without fear of retribution.

After looking closer at the images, I noticed that artist's rendition is not a full-on copy, the angle is changed slightly. To me, this is the first indication that the poster should be considered fair use. In this case, he took a sample image of his subject and then drew his subject. He was not deliberately copying the photograph, he was taking a picture of the candidate and using that likeness to create a completely new work of art. Delving deeper, I found a quote that really summarizes my feelings here:

"Fairey's purpose of the use for the photo was political or civic, and this will certainly count in favor of the poster being a fair use [...] Nor will the poster diminish the value of the photo, if anything, it has increased the original photo's value beyond measure, another factor counting heavily in favor of fair use" (Robin Gross, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29023218/).

I think that the intentions of the artist were not to infringe. He made a derivative work, it was based on the original photo, but it was not a full copy of the original photo. He used the likeness of President Obama, to which the AP has no claim. It would have been better had he used a free-license image, or had he searched out the original photographer or, in this case, the holder of the copyright, but the poster itself should not be considered as a case of infringement.

Regarding the Kindle

This is in response to the linked article in the Wall Street Journal

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123980920727621353.html

Printed books may soon see their demise, with new digital counterparts ready to take their place. This technological advance may also spell the demise of the already shaky human attention span, as well. In the new digital format, people will have access to communities discussing pages, paragraphs, even single lines of text, all at a moment’s notice. With these distractions, people will begin reading novels in bits and pieces, losing the vital immersion in the story that once existed, parceling out novels the way I-Tunes did with music albums, selling each chapter or line separately.

Like I-Tunes did with music, digital books will usher in an age of micropayments for content that many wish had existed in the original structure of the Internet. They will also make more information more easily available to more people, potentially sparking a global enlightenment movement that has not been seen since Gutenberg’s Bible began the printing revolution.

It is still too early in the technological cycle to know if these e-books will ultimately harm or help the publishing world. Yet the transition has begun, and the signs seem to point toward great things to come.

OpenSource Media

What a great concept! I've always liked the idea of open source programs, and have often wondered about a free-trade or open license option for media rights. It just makes sense. A blogger who has no feasible income from their creative outlet to generate content and a musician who has no real way to promote themselves really make a perfect duo.

I love the idea of low-price contract licensing as well. You sign up now for the options that you think you might need in the future, and send in the contract at the time that you need it. This way all the bases are covered. You have legal price protection for the future and you have legal access to the work for your free service now. All the while, both you and the artist are gaining from the arrangement.

Creative Commons is another great idea. I've looked at them in the past for some of my design classes, attempting to find good quality free images of a diverse amount of subjects. The limited release copyright is a wonderful concept. The artist retains control of the original media, but the user gains the ability to use the art to fit their needs (as long as they provide the proper credits as determined by the user agreement/copyright license).

Ultimately, I think that this is the direction that the world needs to head in. I've been a big supporter of the Marxist system, the original Marxist system, not the perversion that became Big Block Communism, where everyone provides their own services in exchange for access to everyone else's services, a world-wide barter system that allows the people, all the people, not just the select few, to be provided for. The new direction of these media outlets is a great step in that direction.

The Global Mindset

For anyone reading this blog that's not part of the Multimedia class, take a look at this video, Kevin Kelly - The Next 5000 Days of the Internet, before going too far in. The meat of this post has to do with the topics Kelly brings up.

I was intrigued by what Kelly said in this clip. I had never taken the time to really think about how old (or young) the internet is, and it certainly didn't occur to me the huge amount of change that's happened in such a short amount of time. The first thing that he said that really struck me, outside of the brevity and reach of this relatively new invention, was his comment on our evolving codependency. I would go so far as to say that we've already reached a point of no return. Coming in right under 30 year of age, I've grown up with the internet for a little under half of my life. I know that I've been irreversibly changed by this technology. I use it every day. I don't use a phone book anymore, they're too slow. Dictionaries are antiques in my eyes. My goal is to ultimately "plug in" through a new career path. But I can go without it for a few days when the need arises. I see the addiction in me, however. I use it more and more. Almost all of my communication and outside contact happens through this window (touched on that one last week). And I see it even stronger in my younger siblings. They cannot live without it. Everything they have is plugged in. A cell connection is crucial for their existence. The web is their air.

Moving on, Kelly mentioned the Cloudbook concept. This isn't a far stretch. The technology already exists. There are hundreds of online disk drive companies who sell monthly subscriptions to virtually unlimited storage space on the web. There are companies, such as http://g.ho.st/ that already offer fully-integrated internet-based operating systems. All you need is a system that can access the web and you have your own personal desktop where ever you go. Don't like the idea of keeping everything online? Maintain a home computer and use a service like https://www.gotomypc.com/, which grants you access to your home PC from any computer anywhere in the world at the click of a button. Still don't like it? Wait a few years. As technology goes, size drops by half and power/storage doubles every two years. That means that in a very short time we'll have the ability to carry around pocket-sized personal computers. How will this work? Won't the screens be too small? The keyboards impossible to use? Don't worry. The screen technology already exists. Think projection TV. Keyboard? No problem. Use a laser-read projected keyboard, like the one here: Youtube - Laser Keyboard. You can buy it from these guys:http://www.virtual-laser-keyboard.com/. Ultimately, though, the trending of easier portability and greater online storage or link-up ability will create a more mobile and plugged-in community.

Kelly mentions a possible downfall of this new system: the Web will own everything. Once the storage is moved online, how can you determine ownership? You end up with issues of public domain, copyright infringement, etc. I would like to add a different spin on this: Positive Marxism. If everything is thrown into a collective pot from which everyone can benefit, one possible outcome is greater equality and the collapse of the traditional local currency-based economies. This could lead to a freer sharing or ideas and technologies and a reversion of society to a fair-trade barter-like system.

Finally, at then end of his lecture, Kelly begins to analogize: he likens the growing web to a organism, compiled of millions of parts, each containing millions of cells, with the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. Now, each of these parts is a community, and in each of these, we are the cells. The final thought that he leaves us with is existentialist: We are One. Tied together by this unifying factor, the earth, we are one. The internet is our connection to all the other segments, highlighting once and for all that humanity is not really a segmented entity. Our evolution as species has brought us to this point, created this technology and spawned this global mind, a collection of all our greatest accomplishments and failures, the racial memory of our entire species. As we continue to plug in to this artificial mind, our computing creates the synapses, with each of us a neuron, passing and spreading information from one part to another. With the earth as our body, and the web as our mind, humanity is reaching for that ultimate goal, its tenuous grasp so close. And as the fingers finally wrap around the prize, let it be known that We Are One.

Head in the Clouds

This week's assignment required us to take a look at our place in the internet cloud. After some thinking and sketching, and a bunch of procrastinating, I finally came up with a decent sketch of where the cloud and I sit.

As you can see, I picture myself as being integrated into the cloud. I feel that I'm pretty much wired in. My classes, work, play, and friends are all accessed through this medium. Most of my hobbies involve something to do with the web. 95% of my day revolves around working on, playing on, or otherwise interacting with the cloud in some way, shape or form. I don't much mind this, but it helps to put things in perspective. I do spend a lot of time around here, bumming from page to page, like window shopping at the mall. While this is a valid passtime, it certainly shouldn't be undertaken 24-7. But this is where I live. The graphics and web pages I create are made for this place, like art you'd hang on your wall. My screen is my front door - my closest friends live thousands of miles away, so we interact through online games and voice chatting rather than in-person activities or phone calls. From this little portal, my world can expand to the ends of the (e-)universe with just the click of a few buttons.

But being a cloud, or even just part of it is empty. By nature, you're hardly there, naught but a bit of vapor flowing through the sky, only to vanish when the hard light of day hits you. It's much the same for me. I spend so much time here, that interpersonal communication becomes hard. Granted, I've never really been good at verbally expressing myself, often finding it easier to write what I'm thinking when I have the ability to go back and change a word or think through my thoughts more thoroughly, but now it's near impossible. I can talk to people, but I find it uncomfortable and lacking. I like the lag time from comment to comment you can find on the internet in chatrooms or forums. You can decide who you're going to respond to, what you're going to say and how you're going to say it before it ever comes out. It provides you with that extra second of pause before you post that zinger that really seemed important when ThatGuy814 said that the sky was green, allowing you to see that the response you've just drafted is no better than his, and there's no reason to feed the trolls, as it were.

Well, being part of a cloud isn't always so bad, I suppose. There are always thousands of other droplets bumping around for you to chat with, quick, fleeting interactions providing that little bit of human connection via the front door on your desk...

Assignment - Week 1

Hopes, Goals & Anxieties

What are my goals for this class? Originally, I had thought that this was the Flash animation course (another course that I'll need for my Website Design major). Of course, this delusion was shattered the moment I stepped foot into the digital classroom. But this is not a bad thing. I've never been a blogger or much into the social networking stuff, so this will provide me with exposure to these aspects and allow me to broaden my digital horizon, so to speak. I'm hoping that this experience will help me to understand how these technologies work and will help me learn how to integrate them into my future web projects, which leads to my checking-in question for Lisa this week: How deep into the web coding does this course go? My sinking suspicion is that it doesn't at all, which will be a bummer, but I'll still stick with it (heck, I need to take the course anyway, right?).

I don't really have any anxieties about this course. I'm completing the majority of my major online, so this isn't my first class here, though it is my first real experience with many of the tools for the course. I've never really had any issues with learning new things, though, as long as I have the time and wherewithall to try. Given that this is a college course, it can be assumed that I have both, so this shouldn't be too hard. I'm sure that my techophile background will help out a lot here.

To my fellow students, I wish you the best of luck and encourage you to speak up in the discussion board. As I said, this isn't my first online class, and I've found that the best ones encourage a lot of online discussion. This allows us to bounce ideas off one another and really delve into the inner workings of the course. So share your insights, ask questions and answer your classmates. Don't be shy. Chances are that if you have a question or are getting stuck somewhere, there are others stuck in the same spot. By combining our efforts, we can figure out a solution and then we've all learned something.

Sean

Inaugural Post

Words go here,  but, then, that's self explanatory.  This is the first post for the class blog site, and I don't really have a lot to say... yet.  Give it time.  Gotta dust the summer cobwebs off, and then I'll get going with some more substantial posts and whatnots.