Group items tagged

Washington: Oct 21, 2010.This article, written by Eliza Krigman published in the Congress Daily/P.M. Krigman is an education reporter for top political and public policy magazines she is based in the UK. This article discusses how currently rights holders of companies and many government leaders are determined to crack down on Internet piracy through stricter enforcement. Public-interest groups argue that such rules can jeopardize free speech, particularly in countries without the types of safeguard measures found in American law and are angry. The possibility of using copyright law to justify censorship drew attention recently when the New York Times exposed how the Russian government used Microsoft to suppress political dissidents. This issue is very relevant to everyone whether you are a right's holder or user or a copyrighted products. LINK:http://techdailydose.nationaljournal.com/2010/10/ip-enforcement-policies-stir-c.php

Motorola and Apple have filed many lawsuits against each other regarding stealing of each others Intellectual Property. Motorola sued Apple in early October claiming they violated eighteen of their patents regarding

This article, taken from the "Montreal Gazette," talks about the copyright of new media material. Traditionally, there are three main categories of media protection: Copy Right, Trademark, and Patent. "In terms of new media, the category of protection that most often applies is copyright." The article goes on to say that copyright is automatic as long as your product is original and fixed. Meaning the work was 1) not copied and 2) the idea has to have a "Tangible form." Just a couple of things to think about when protecting your ideas. -Ck

This article is about creative commons, and how music artists are starting to prefer it over traditional copyright. Artists such as "Chuck D and the Fine Arts Militia" released their new single under creative commons, and encouraged people to copy it, mix it, criticize it and other things. Now the song has been incorporated into new types of music and videos, and every time those are viewed, it links back to the original artist, giving them immediate popularity. Once other artists saw how this was giving the band more fans, they started releasing their songs under creative commons as well. Copyright laws provide limited flexibility, and make it harder for artists to get as many fans as they would if they released their songs under Creative Commons. Artists and authors have been saying that creative commons allows others to "build upon their creativity -- without calling a lawyer first." Now, artists are making half of their money off downloads and the other half off licensing fees. However, while many artists and authors are starting to release their work under creative commons, others like major movie studios or record labels will not, because they already make plenty of money off the current traditional copyright system.

Creative Commons licenses are changing the media sharing environment of the internet. When people share media with a creative commons label, anybody is allowed to download, upload, and share it for free. This is good for artists who want to grow their fan bases, but bad for companies who are looking to profit from their work.

This article by Noam Cohen describes the controversy over the use of public photos on flickr. Flickr is a website used to share images with family and friends, which is now being used by company's and site's selling images without the approval of their owners. One example was Virgin Mobile's use of a picture of Alison Chang, a 15 year old, in one of their campaigns without her knowledge. The picture was under the protection of a creative commons that allowed it to be used for commercial use, making this issue more about privacy than about copyright. Virgin Mobile responded that they were "promoting creative freedom and didn't do anything wrong."

The popular band black eyed peas is facing dual lawsuits for two of their popular songs that were released in their new album the E.N.D. This article explains the details of who an why those singer/songwriters are suing and point out a pattern that both the peas and there recording groups, universal records and universal music group, have engaged in "a pattern and practice of intentional copyright infringement with respect to the unlawful copying of songs of unknown or lesser-known artists." This article portrays the ongoing pattern of copyright lawsuits that have arisen due to advancements in the digital music business, and is just one example of many high profile lawsuits with millions of dollars involved. (The two songs that they are accused of stealing combined for a total of 10.7 digital units sold).

Date issued: April 17th, 2009. This article from wired.com by David Kravets deals with a lawsuit filed by students against turnitin.com. The students claimed this website was breaching the copyrights the students owned for the essays they wrote. There was a countersuit filed against one of the students accusing because the student in question was already cheating the essays he was writing. This article discusses the problem of whether your work is really yours and is just another step in the process of trying to make rules to govern the internet.

The article is about a case regarding a violation to the Copyright Act. Whitney Harper, a high school cheerleader, participated in infringing activity on LimeWire between the ages 14-16, claiming that she thought she was simply internet radio streaming. With this "innocent infringer's" defense, she is requesting a $200 fine per song to the Recording Industry of America as opposed to the Copyright Act's minimum $750 per song fine. This would result in a total payment of $7,400 rather than $27,750. The final decision has not yet been made, and the justices of the Supreme Court have the option of taking the case and issuing a ruling, or declining to hear it. The author takes a very neutral viewpoint on the issue, expressing the opinions on both sides of the case. He presents the information in a very factual rather than biased way, and concludes the article in a non-opinionated manner. David Kravets is a technologist, political scientist, humorist, and reporter.

Somewhat like the photoshop site we looked at in class, this innovation can show you a theoretically more attractive version of yourself. It's worth reading this article!

Cool Article

"Drank" is a new drink that helps a person relax and sleep. Sparked by the words "all-natural" in an article about this new drink, I checked the site to find an ingredient list, but could only find the three herbal ingredients. I bet thins drink is high fructose corn syrup loaded and as unhealthfull as all others, but if not, it might do the sleep trick the night before a test!

Links to many articles discussing the real Sarah Palin's appearance on Saturday Night Live. Why did she go on? Will this help or hurt her political persona? One thing I found interesting was that she didn't say anything political (or really anything at all), but she was on stage while she was being insulted and managed to keep a somewhat straight face.

Last week, the venerable Encyclopaedia Britannica gave into the pressure created by Wikipedia when it announced that it is trialling a new service (see the beta site here) that will let the public write and edit articles.

All changes to this law enacted in 2006 (as discussed today) were repealed in January 2008. This wikipedia article covers the original law, the 2006 changes and the 2008 repeal.

A brief chronological documentation of the internet. Article first, then list.

An article from CNN: "Terrorists are likely to use a weapon of mass destruction somewhere in the world in the next five years, a blue-ribbon panel assembled by Congress has concluded."

Eco Friendly Car that runs on air!

This article from Newsweek in 1995 lists some reasons the author believes the internet will fail.

This article highlights the continued conflict between the MTV show "Jersey Shore" and the Italian-American group UNICO. UNICO has been critical of the show since the beginning, commenting that the show "perpetuates all sorts of negative stereotypes." The article also discusses how Snooki, a character from the television series, has criticized UNICO and the multiple companies who have pulled their advertisements from the show, including Dell and Dominoes Pizza. In response to the comments, UNICO issued a statement saying "She is not an embarrassment to Italian Americans -- she is actually an embarrassment to the entire human race!!!!"

"Jersey Shore," the MTV reality show that claims to lift the veil over "one of the Tri-state area's most misunderstood species … the GUIDO" (as per its press materials), is offensive to Italian-Americans and shouldn't air, says Andre Dimino, the president of UNICO, the national Italian-American service organization based in Fairfield.

http://www.nj.com/entertainment/celebrities/index.ssf/2009/11/jersey_shore_offends_italian-a.html This article sets out trying to defend MTV's newest show, Jersey Shore by supplying 5 redeeming qualities. The author can only think of four! The first being, the Jersey shore is not actually that interesting and this portrayal will attract a lot of teenagers and young adults looking for the fun times shown on the program, boosting Jersey Shore's tourism rates and their economy. Two: this show will kill off the show "Keeping Up with the Kardashians," a show that the author apparently dislikes more than Jersey Shore. Three: young people need bad examples to learn what not to do. And four: Now we can shut down all the things that led to the Actors stupidity and bad judgments like the schools they frequented.