Internet Culture in the Information Society

Script

 Black background. No music playing. The rolling title comes up on the screen: Homeland/Remix. And the title begins to fade.

 The scene opens in Burning man. Hot desert. Crowds of people.

As the screen starts to fade into black again, you hear a females voice screaming, and then a male voice yell NO!

Screen fades back into black.

 MARCUS:

Ange are you ready?

ANGE:

Yes! I can’t believe we have found ourselves in this chaos again, like I cant believe he just took her!

MARCUS:

Honestly, I couldn’t even sleep. Just knowing that they’re with her. It makes me sick!

ANGE:

Me either. We look everywhere yesterday, and couldn’t find them. I’m really worried Marcus.

MARCUS:

Me too!

Ange and Marcus gather some of their belonging got their backpacks, and headed out the door to find MASHA and Zeb.

MARCUS:

I just can’t believe it was her!
ANGE:

You are 100% positive it was “Severe Haircut Woman,” Carrie Johnstone?

MARCUS:

Yes! Ange I don’t know how many times I have to repeat myself it was her damnit!

ANGE:

Then what in the world would she want from Masha and Zeb, I just don’t get it!

Marcus begins starts to gaze in the crowded SF street, thinking and thinking, then all of a sudden, frantically searching his pockets.

ANGE:

Marcus what’s going on? What are you thinking? Tell me! Marcus!

Marcus grabs something out of his pocket.

MARCUS:

Ange, it’s the USB thumb-drive!

ANGE:

Oh my god! The one Masha gave you?

MARCUS:

YES!

As Marcus and Ange are walking through the city, trying to come up with a way to get Masha and Zeb out of this mess.

MARCUS:

I knew that I never should of taken the USB, I knew something bad was going to happen. I damn near had dreams about it.

ANGE:

Marcus you can’t blame yourself, Masha gave this to you for a reason, don’t you think that it will only be a matter of time before they notice that neither Masha nor Zeb have the thumb-drive.

MARCUS:

NO! I don’t know Ange! I’m just really worried right now, we need to go hide, and get out of the city before they get us. We need to call Darryl, and get his advice.

ANGE:

Leave Darryl out of this! He doesn’t need to get into this chaos again!

Marcus whips out his phone, and calls Darryl. RING, RING RING.

DARRYL:

Hello?

MARCUS:

Darryl, Marcus come over to my house ASAP! No questions, no hesitations just come over.

DARRYL:

Uhhh….Marcus what did you get into now?

MARCUS:

Darryl NOW!

Marcus hangs up the phone, and heads home with Ange.

Darryl arrives at the house, and walks up to Marcus room where him and Ange are on the computer.

DARRYL

So what’s wrong? What’s the big worry?

MARCUS:

Masha and Zeb are gone! There back! And they are after this!

Marcus whips out the UBS thumb-drive.

DARRYL:

Wait…..severe hair cut lady? Why would they want that?

MARCUS:

YES!!! And I have no idea. It must contain something, but I know this is the reason! We need to look at it!

            Darryl takes his laptop out, and sets it on Marcus bed.

DARRYL:

Anything I can do to get revenge from that bitch, I will do! Lets figure out what the hells on this USB.

Marcus hands Darryl the hard-drive and puts it into the computer.

MARCUS:

Here we go.

Ange, Marcus and Darrly worried, confused, and concerned.  A video footage appears on the laptop screen, WikiLeaks style of hard evidence of corporate and governmental dishonestly, viewing the severe hair cut lady. Marcus drops his cell phone. Jaw open.

MARCUS:

Oh My God!

Official Book Cover Homeland, Source: Amazon

Cory Doctorow’s success from the novel Little Brother led him to create a sequel called, Homeland. Just like in novel Little Brother, Doctorow offered a free online excerpt for the sequel only allowing the reader to view the first few chapters. I can easily say that, Doctorow did it again, by leaving the reader (myself) wanting to read more.

A few years pass by, and the book starts off with Marcus and Ange in Nevada at an annual event called Burning Man. With the economy down, Marcus’s hacktivist past lands him a profession as a Webmaster for a campaigning representative who promises reorganization. Marcus experiences a blast from the past and his ex-girlfriend comes into the picture, and gives him a thumb-drive containing a WikiLeaks style of hard evidence of corporate and governmental dishonesty.

Eventually, you come across something so terrible; you can’t look yourself in the mirror anymore unless you do something about it. “So maybe you copy some files, pile up some evidence. You think to yourself, Someday, someone will have the chance to speak out against this, and I’ll quietly slip them these files, and my conscience will forgive me for being a part of an organization that’s doing such rotten stuff. Masha was giving me the keys to decode all the ugliest secrets of the American government, all the stuff that had so horrified loyal DHS employees that they’d felt the need to smuggle it out.”

Thumb-Drive, Source: E-how

Marcus, after receiving the thumb-drive from Masha goes through an internal struggle whether or not to release the corrupt evidence to the world. He is worried that if he releases it, something bad will happen to her. But on the other hand Marcus wants revenge from his past towards the DHS. The other potential problem that Marcus is concerned about is if he leaks the evidence he cannot admit to being the leaker, because that will cause severe consequences at his new job. So Marcus is in this novel is in a internal struggle.

Then a couple days pass and Marcus sees Masha being kidnapped by the same crooked government officials from the previous novel Little Brother. Marcus, and his friends are on a mission to find Masha, as well as making sure the dispersion of the thumb-drive with the corrupt evidence on the Internet the right decision to do.

As I stated before, Doctorow did it again, keeping me intrigued and interested in finishing the novel. You would think that after everything that happened in the novel Little Brother, that Marcus wouldn’t find himself in any more drama. But little did he know, someone from his past would give him another opportunity to become once again the hacker hero. It’s awesome that Doctorow gives people a chance to read his work for free. I am not someone who goes out of their way to read books, but I can honestly say that Doctorow has me hooked, and wanting to keep reading more of his books.

How do you feel about this excerpt, and what do you think Marcus should do?

Cory Doctorow, Source: Wiki

Cory Doctorow, is a Canadian-British journalist, blogger and science fiction author. He is an activist in favor of liberalizing the copyright laws and a supporter of the Creative Commons organization, and uses the majority of their licenses for his books. Doctorow’s common theme of his work includes: digital right management, file sharing, and post-scarcity economics. Doctorow, has written a series of books from:  Little Brother, Pirate Cinema, The Rapture of the Nords, The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow, A Little Help, and many more.

Offical cover of Little Brother, Source: YAL

 Little Brother is the story of 4 teenaged students living in San Francisco. Marcus Yallow (w1n5ton) is a seventeen-year-old boy who is the main character in the story. Marcus is the leader of his friends and appreciates technology and has a dream of constructing his own custom devices.  Darryl Glover is Marcus’s best friend, who is best known as the “detail man” of the group. When the group gets interned, Darryl suddenly vanishes, and never resurfaces after they are released. Vanessa Pak (Van) is known as the “ideas” person in the group, and lastly Jose Luis Torrez (Jolu) is known as the “technical” member of the group, and is the most technological savvy, knowing and having experience in computer programming.

Marcus Yallow withheld, Source: E-books

In the novel, Marcus and his friends ditch school and take part in Harajuku Fun Madness (ARG), and find themselves caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, and trapped in a huge aftermath of a major terrorist attacks on San Francisco. Confused and shocked Darryl is stabbed and Marcus and his friends, become suddenly detained by the Department of Homeland Security, and are taken away to an underground imprisonment where they are harshly cross-examined for days. After the 3 days of cross-examination, they are released, and forced to sign documents saying that they are freely held and questioned. By this time, Darryl is still missing, and Marcus is still confused, irritated, but motivated to fight back against the DHS. He then begins using encoded Wi-Fi connections through his X-BOX and creates an underground network with his friends to fight against the DHS.

I find this book, extremely interesting but very long. Doctorow wrote this book very clear, and what I appreciated was that it was up to date in the technological world. I understood some of the technologies he was talking about such as XBOX. Also the story was taken place in SF, so I knew, and have been to many of the places he was talking about. But in the end, this book raised a lot of awareness and question about the meaning of “security,” and we as individual’s sacrifice for our freedom of security. How do you personally feel about this issue of security?

But overall, I am thrilled to finish reading the rest of the book, and find out what exactly happens.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8CRwGAzNOk[/youtube]

Here’s an Interview with Cory Doctorow, about his novel Little Brother

Gilad Lotan, Erhardt Graeff, Mike Ananny, Devin Gaffney, Ian Pearce, and, Danah Boyd are all authors of the article called, The Revolutions Were Tweeted: Information Flows During the 2011 Tunisian and Egyptian Revolutions. Lotan is VP of Research and Development at Social Flow  in New York City. Graeff is a Research Assistant at MIT Center for Civic Media, and his focus is in Web Ecology Project. Ananny  is an Assistant Professor at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism where he researches the public significance of systems for networked journalism through Microsoft Research. Gaffney and Pearce is a halfway programmer and both study Web Ecology Project. Lastly, Boyd  is a Senior Researcher at Microsoft Research and a Research Assistant Professor in Media, Culture, and Communication at New York University.

Official Twitter Logo, Source: Twitter

In the article, The Revolutions Were Tweeted: Information Flows During the 2011 Tunisian and Egyptian Revolutions, Lotan and the other researchers analyzed the network assembly and distribution of news on Twitter during the Tunisian and Egyptian Revolutions as seen through the different information flows. They examined this dispersion through bloggers, journalist, activist and mainstream media outlets, and analyzed the importance of Twitter, and other social networking sites through the spread of steadfast information across the world.

After evaluating this article I found that the flow of information sharing on Twitter is a 2 step flow theory, by Katz Lazarsfeld. By this, activist and journalist are posting tweets or re-tweet important information, and it serves as a primary source of information where then bloggers and other main stream media outlets gather their information and either re-tweeting or dispersing the information. By looking at these different flows, they can identify they key characteristics: who starts an information flow, what types of actors are involved in the flow, how many users participate, and which actor types appear to be more successful in spreading information. We then divide each flow into sub-flows and analyze recurring patterns among actor types. During the Tunisian uprising, Twitter was a place where users used a set of practices and established relationships that were then further developed during the Egyptian revolution.

In the end, research found that the content had become more of a topic and discussion due to Twitter and tweeting.  Twitter is a great medium for people to gather and share important information, and for knowledge to be widely disperse throughout the world today. It is easier today for people today to tweet or reading a quick 140 characteristics tweet regarding something important going on in rather than hearing the information face to face or using other mediums. Our society is lazy, and using these types of mediums like Twitter is a fast, quick and reliable way for people to receive information.

Andy Greenberg, Source: Forbes

Andy Greenberg is a regular and teach reporter for Forbes, and the author of This Machine Kills Secrets: How Wikileakers, Cypherpunks, and Hacktivists Aim to Free the World’s Information.  Greenberg’s main focus is on technology, privacy and information security.

Greenberg posted an excerpt from his book This Machine Kills Secrets, on Wired Magazine website. In the excerpt, Greenberg travels all around the world to find the next big WikiLeaks. Greenberg found himself in East Germany at an elite hacktivist

This Machine Kills Secrets, Source: Forbes

organization. There were groups of liveliness individuals, whose goals were to destroy the world’s institutional privacy. Daniel Domscheit-Berg who was a active member at this organization, was a member and key contributor of the WikiLeaks. Daniel at the camp in Germany hoped to endeavor to create a WikiLeaks spin-off, called Open Links. WikiLeaks was an international organization that published anonymous submissions, and leaks of unavailable documents while preserving the anonymity of sources. WikiLeaks revealed a lot of whistle blowing, and had some complications with leaker’s identities. Domscheit-Berg thought that only major players should have access to the OpenLeaks site of activism.

The difference between the two is that OpenLeaks differs in the way that leaked information that individuals post to media and non-profit organizations will be completely anonymous and untraceable.

 The long-gestating system is designed to allow the same anonymous whistleblowing as WikiLeaks, but unlike the parent project where Domscheit- Berg spent three years of his life, OpenLeaks isn’t designed to actually make anything public. Instead, it aims to securely pass on leaked content to partnered media organizations and nonprofits, avoiding the dicey role of publisher that got WikiLeaks into so much trouble. It will focus, Domscheit- Berg says, on the most technically tricky and crucial link in the leaking chain: untraceable anonymous uploads.

 Although this site did not publish, I feel like it would be a good place for people to come together anonymously and provide illegal information. A lot more people, in my opinion would come forth and reveal information if their identity was withheld, not appointed, or even acknowledged. This site would be great system too see what really is going on in our corrupt society we live in today.  People would be more willing to tell, and give information don’t you think?

How do you feel about this topic?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUZgfLT8Czo&list=LPTb79qBXLFw4&index=3&feature=plcp[/youtube]

It’s crazy to think that YouTube has only been around for 5 years now. There are thousands to millions of people subscribed and use YouTube everyday. It has become one of the top social media sites today, for people to post, subscribe and search for multiple channels. YouTube has become a starting ground for many musicians to get their music out, and have their voice heard. This site has been the jump-start for many famous people’s careers such as Justin Bieber, Carley Ray Jepsen and the Jonas Brothers.

Henry Jenkins is a Provost Professor of Communication, Journalism and Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California. Jenkins is an American Scholar, that wrote an article on the “Nine Propositions Towards a Cultural Theory of YouTube.” After reading his article on this topic, the proposal that I stand forth is number four.

YouTube’s value depends heavily upon its deployment via other social networking sites — with content gaining much greater visibility and circulation when promoted via blogs, Live Journal, MySpace, and the like. While some people come and surf YouTube, it’s real breakthrough came in making it easy for people to spread its content across the web. In that regard, YouTube represents a shift away from an era of stickiness (where the goal was to attract and hold spectators on your site, like a roach motel) and towards an era where the highest value is in spread ability a term which emphasizes the active agency of consumers in creating value and heightening awareness through their circulation of media content.)

A great example would be Justin Bieber and his start of fame on YouTube. Bieber created a channel called Kidrauhl, and would post all different types of videos of him singing, until he posted the video called “With You” by Chris Brown that would change his life. He instantly became a YouTube sensation, and producers such as Usher and Def Jam Records wanted to sign him. Justin used social media to the best of him linking his songs to YouTube, Facebook, MySpace and Twitter.  At the beginning of his success he made all different cameos on the Ellen Degeneres show and circulated his success in many different social media sites. Before you knew it Justin Bieber was the new hot pop icon that girls all over the United States had his video posted to their MySpace page and boys aspired to be like him.  Little did the Grammy; VMA artist know, what the power of YouTube would have on his overall career generating more than 2 million subscribers on his YouTube channel now.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQOFRZ1wNLw&feature=relmfu[/youtube]

Jane McGonigal is an American game designer who specializes in different reality games and pervasive video gaming.  McGonigal is the Director of Game Research & Development at the Institution for the Future. She also has taught at San Francisco Art Institution and University of California teaching game design and study. In 2011 McGonigal published a book called: Reality Is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World.

With millions to millions of gamers in the United States alone, we live in a world where every generation will be a gamer generation. With the technologies, creativity and abilities game designers are able to make well- designed videogame such as Halo 3, and make it as real life as possible. McGonigal writes in her book in order to make or design a good video game you need to apply elements relating to real-world challenges and experiences. Many people think that videogames are a waste of time, and in McGonigal eyes she argues that these games aren’t a waste of time, but are beneficial in different ways. She states it’s a way for people to escape, bring people together, create happiness, allows us to strategize with ourselves and others, compete, provides trial and error and permits challenges and personal achievements. She wants us as a society to blend reality and fantasy and reframe about those stereotypical stereotypes that video games are addictive, isolating, unproductive and think and believe of them a beneficial to our own life, health, education, organization and managing businesses.

I want gaming to be something that everybody
does, because they understand that games can be a real solution to
problems and a real source of happiness. I want games to be something everybody
learns how to design and develop, because they understand that games
are a real platform for change and getting things done. And I want families,
schools, companies, industries, cities, countries, and the whole world to come
together to play them, because we’re finally making games that tackle real
dilemmas and improve real lives.

After reading this book, I still am somewhat skeptical about this topic. I totally understand what McGonigal is trying to point out, but I have to agree and disagree with McGonigal and her issue. I feel that if we applied all of these elements that a video game entails in the real world, our society would be somewhat chaotic.  In my eyes some of these elements would not make sense. I feel that people buy video games to escape from the real world, relieve stress and have fun. The only way I can see gaming working in reality is through businesses and personal experiences and lifetime achievements. By this, video games allow individuals and corporations to have achievement, challenges, failures, strategies, skills and dedications. I can see this working, but where I become skeptical is how are you suppose to use video gaming for health issues like treating cancers and other treatments?  How is a game supposed to fulfill that? It just seems silly and unethical. How do you feel about this topic?

Herodotus saw games as a surprising, inventive, and effective way to intervene
in a social crisis. I, too, see games as potential solutions to our most pressing
shared problems. He saw that games could tap into our strongest survival
instincts. I see games that once again will confer evolutionary advantage on
those who play them.

I found this site called Reality is Broken, and this blog is all about McGonigal book. What I found interesting is there are different comments about this book from different people who have read it. Also you are able to learn more about the book and join the movement for a “Gameful society,” and also the websites gives you a link where you can go see Jane perform live in person and says her upcoming dates and where she will be.

In the future I do see that our society and day-to-day lives will be like a video game. Our technology each day is advancing and social media is becoming a vital aspect of each one of our lives. But do you agree with McGonigal’s thoughts on this concept and believe our reality is broken or think these assumption are crazy?

Danah Boyd author of Why Youth (Heart) Social Network Sites, is a Senior Researcher at Microsoft Research and is an Assistant Professor in Media, Culture and Communication at New York University. Boyd’s research focuses on how young teenagers are using social media in their everyday lives and how they profile themselves while using them.

In today’s society if you are not connected to at least one of these social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Linkin, Instagram and Google+, you simply do not exist, and must be living in a cave. In my Public Relations class, Professor Byers is making all of his students sign up for a Twitter account, because he believes it’s a great and vital way to be informed and know what is going on around the world. Social networking sites have become a necessity in teenagers and young adults lives today. Even older adults and parents are becoming hooked to this new trend. Why is it that these SSN sites are sucking all of us in, and becoming addicted and loyal members of their sites? If I had to guess on the average time that Americans spent on social networking a day would be around an hour to two hours. THAT IS RIDICULOUS! Sadly, I am addicted as well. Every morning I wake up check Instagram then through out the day I will check it, then when I am about to go to bed I will go on Pinterest and Pin different things and lastly check my Instagram again. Actually thinking about how much I am on these sites is somewhat frightening and time consuming.

In the essay Why Youth (Heart) Social Network Sites: The Role of Networked Publics in Teenage Social Life, Boyd examines how teenagers are “addicted” to SSN sites. Many teenagers are signing up for all of these different sites because it is the new cool thing to do. Celebrities promote all these different sites and if they are doing it, they are. Boyd found that most teenagers sign up for sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and many others just to stay in the loop, connect with their CLOSET friends, promote about what they are doing in their daily lives. For example, post pictures and write posts.  Boyd points out that adults use SSN sites to socialize with strangers. What is frightening is that teenagers are using this form as vital role in keeping in touch with their closet friends, which is limiting the face-to-face interaction with one another. People, including myself at times feel so much more comfortable behind the computer screen then actually talking to that person in real life. Is their sometimes that the majority of people are hiding or creating false personas?  Why do people do this and how do you feel about this new phenomenon?

By early 2006, many considered participation on the key social network site, MySpace, essential to being seen as cool at school.  While not all teens are members of social network sites, these sites developed significant cultural resonance amongst American teens in a short period of time. Although the luster has since faded and teens are not nearly as infatuated with these sites as they once were, they continue to be an important part of teen social life. P.1

I personally found this article to be very interesting but a little outdated. Boyd tended to talk a lot about MySpace and the usage of teenagers using it. I completely disagree with this quote above. I feel more or less teenagers are becoming more and more addicted too social media then ever before. You walk around and see every kid with an IPhone and they’re either on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. I can’t even think of one of my friends who don’t at least have one of these applications. I mean my 9-year-old cousin has a Facebook! Which is bad I know, but my point is, SSN sites are not ever going to disappearing. It is a way for people to communicate and keep in touch with friends and people around the world.

Today the newest SSN site would have to be Instagram or Facebook. My finally thoughts are that teenagers, adults and myself need to stop finding the Internet and social medias as an escape. We need to go out and reconnect and stay in touch the old way. Our environment is changing and we cannot let technology take over.

XOXO

Jordi!

Andrew Keen author of Digital Vertigo “How Today’s Online Social Revolution Is Dividing, Diminishing and Disorienting Us,” is best-known for his concerns on the current Internet culture and how it is disorienting us as a society. Keen is an Internet entrepreneur who founded Audiocafe.com, which advocated for the idea of peoples privacy and how it has been diminished through Web 3.0.

In the book “How Today’s Online Social Revolution Is Dividing, Diminishing and Disorienting Us,” Keen describes Facebook as a network where we as a society are constantly updating ourselves, and becoming more social. We have the ability to literally live our every day lives on the Internet, and know everything about everyone with just a click of a button. This is frightening in my eyes; do we as individual exploit too much information about ourselves and forget about our personal privacy? Once you put something on the Internet it is there for the world to see, but why do we do this? Keen argues that social media plays an enormous role in individuals lives today. It is so much easier to look someone up on the Internet, versus going on a date and trying to figure out the person face-to-face. That takes too much work, our society is lazy!

Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are some of the few social networking sites that allow an individual to share their personal information, and what’s going on in their daily life. This makes surfing the web, and people staking disconcerting easy to do. Keen describes this as a warning in his book, and wonders why we are embracing this so much. What is frightening is that not only individuals are making first impressions when viewing your site but, businesses and universities are using this form of web surfing to get a feel for their future employees or students, and judging their character based on their site whether they are hired or accepted.

 This revolution is dramatically reshaping not just the Internet but also our identities and personalities. Whether we like it or not, twenty-first century life is increasingly being lived in public. Four out of five admissions offices, for example are looking up applicants’ Facebook profiles before making a decision on whether to accept them. Almost half of HR managers believed it was likely that our social networking profiles are replacing our resumes as the core way for potential employers to evaluate us.”44

To, too many people, this can be frightening. In our society today, too many people feel too comfortable exploiting themselves on the Internet.  They do not filter as much because they do not have to deal with face to face and therefore believe that they are somewhat “hiding”.

 “Like the network itself, our mass public confessional is global.  People from all around the world are revealing their most private thoughts on transparent network that anyone and everyone can access.”

Unfortunately, I know a lot of people who would fall under this category, and I cant lie I must include myself. I am apart of the social networking world, and I post pictures and information so that everyone can access it. Thinking about it, its kind of frightening. All of my friends on FB and Instagram know exactly what I am doing and where I am when I post something. By me posted is targeting my own privacy.

Keen argues that we as individuals are destroying our privacy and ourselves by using these social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Sadly the world of privacy is no longer as present as it once was however it is an important part to life today. How do you feel about this??

XOXO

Jordi

Copyright is a concept that is well known amongst our society today. There are so many different regulations and rules adjacent to this issue, that it seems people might know what the overall concept is, but have poor educated on how serious the issue of copyright infringement truly is.

 Copyright is defined as the exclusive right to make copies, license, and otherwise exploit a literary, musical, or artistic work, whether printed, audio, video, etc.: works granted such right by law on or after January 1, 1978, are protected for the lifetime of the author or creator and for a period of 50 years after his or her death.

 Lawrence Lessig, author of the book Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy, is an American academic activist, who is best known as an advocate for reducing restrictions on copyright and trademark disputes. Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy, was first published in the United States by the Penguin Press in 2008 and also published in Great Britain in 2008 as well.

In the first part of the book, Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy, a woman named Stephanie Len’s was fighting for her right to keep up a 30 second video up of her adorable eighteen-month-old-son dancing across her kitchen floor to the song by Prince called, “Lets Go Crazy.” Little did she know that this 30-second cute video of her son dancing would entail a $150,000 copyright infringement fine against Universal Music Group. Does this seem fair? Breaking the law by posting a video of your son on YouTube. By not understanding or knowing the proper guidelines and regulations to Copyrighting Stephanie Len found herself in legal dispute. Watching the video you can see that their was no harm in the making of the recording, and Stephanie was unaware she was doing something illegal. No one in his or her right mind would think after watching this video their would be a free source of the song “Let’s Go Crazy” by Prince illegally downloading amongst millions and million of people.

As the book goes on Lessig begins to talk about his argument about illegal downloading and the culture of remixing. It allows individuals to creativity create something. He later on talks about the new policies that have taken place over illegal downloading and copyright and found that  file sharing in fact has not stopped, it has increased the amount of bootlegs (make, distribute, or sell (illicit goods, computer software, or recordings, illegally.)

What our policy makers have done over the last decade has not actually stopped file sharing; it has not actually helped a lot of artists; it has not spurred a wide range of innovation. All it has done with certainty is raise a generation of “pirates.”

 If you ever want to use copyrighted material legally you must get “explicit” permission from the company holding the rights to the material. The book follows an excerpt explaining the ability for “perfect access” saying,

“perfect access (meaning the ability to get whatever you want whenever you want it) will seem obvious. And when it seems obvious, anything that resists that expectation will seem ridiculous. Ridiculous, in turn, makes many of us willing to break the rules that restrict access. Even the good become pirates in a world where the rules seem absurd.”

Sadly, this is true in every way. People are not willing to wait and access permission the right way. We as a society are so used to having access to information at any second through our smart phones to computers. Our society is lazy, and by being lazy people are willing to break the law in order to get what they want, for example downloading illegal music.

After reading this first part of Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy, I found all the stories and different real world examples very interesting and intriguing. I found this website called Online Piracy in Numbers, and found some startling facts. About 70% of online users find nothing wrong with online piracy, 98% of data transferred using P2P networks is copyrighted. These were only some of the startling facts. By this Lessig would agree and feel that our society does not have the proper knowledge and education about illegal downloading and the serious penalties that can arise from it. In terms of the scenario I brought up earlier in my paper in terms of Universal Music Group and Stephanie Len’s, I believe that it was absolutely ridiculous. You barely can even hear the song in the background, and she has no intent of breaking the law what so ever. Policy makers and corporations need to stop focusing on the harmless situations like this and need to focus on larger issues in educated people on this huge problem.

Sadly, I do not see illegal downloading and copyright infringement stopping anytime soon, how do you feel about this issue?

XOXO

Jordi Carroll