This is a blog post that I decided to do on my own accord.

One of the biggest, if not the biggest issue regarding ethical use of the internet today is the legality surrounding the use of Person to Person (or P2P) File sharing. There has been tireless debate over the subject, and many different rulings on whether or not it should be allowed. One of the biggest legal instances was the Grokster Case. In the Grokster Case a file-sharing website was taken to court over whether or not they were allowed to be promoting the illegal downloads of copyrighted material. The prosecutor was MGM Movies, backed by the MPAA and the RIAA.

The Supreme Court’s final ruling was as follows:

1)StreamCast and Grokster not only provided the software to pirate files, they also actively promoted pirating. This promotion was in the form of active marketing steps and on-screen statements that described users downloading copyrighted content using their products.

In response to 3.

In our world today there has arises a skepticism for the credibility on many sources. More than that, we have lost faith in the news sources that have been legitimate information sources for centuries. A sense of media paranoia is now plaguing our culture. We are convinced that television networks, newspapers, online media sources, etc, have become so biased that their information if unreliable. these networks have their loyalty to a certain political party, or school of thinking, and in their efforts to remain loyal that excrete a stream of extrodinarily biased information. To some, this makes them unreliable.

This is where youtube, and other like sources of information come into play. They serve as a platform for the masses, allowing anyone to get their voice heard to millions of people. It appears we now look at social media platforms like twitter, facebook, and youtube to get out information. They serve as an ear to the people, without the ulterior motives of the main networks. This “viral marketing”, as Jenkins calls it, seems to be the way of the future.

Jenkins talks about how clips from shows or interviews from programs on major networks now get more views from sites like youtube, than they do from the original network that aired the clip. A perfect example of this is Rick Perry’s “Strong” campaign. (Which can be viewed HERE.) The commercials were aired on a very right wing network, and were seen by some, but over looked by many people who didn’t care for the network’s agenda. When the video went viral, over seven million people saw it on youtube, most of which would not have seen it otherwise. I myself first saw the video on facebook with a link to youtube. There would have been no way i would have seen this political campaign if it wasn’t mocked all over the inter-webs.

Though Jenkins’ article is over five years old, I believe he portrayed a spitting image of what these sites would look like in the future. The social media explosion has been instrumental in the way we spread information in todays world. Without these things many would be left in the dark.

The design element is one of the most important parts of anything that you hope to showcase anything on. Whether it’s a music blog, a forum in which to showcase your accomplishments, or even a billboard or flier. The goal is to attract the attention of people so they will listen to what you have to say, purchase your product, etc. For our personal hypertext project the design element is one of the most, if not the most, important element.

I have had a decent amount of experience with website work, and a little bit with design. And one of the tips that really stood out for me was to make the format and operation of your website different than most of the cookie-cutter sites you see today. While still making the site easy to navigate, make the look of your site different. There’s nothing that will attract more attention initially then a totally different look.

I found the ideas and themes suggested in 10 Unusual Places to get Design Inspiration  quite interesting. I really liked the idea of looking to different eras for inspiration. Giving your site a retro feel could be very cool and different. Because I’m very into music I liked the idea of using album covers and album art as inspiration. I also thought that a combination of different themes could be interesting, possibly a retro album cover theme.

Some other things I noticed about some of the layouts were that the majority of them were very pleasing to the eye. When creating a website you want people to be interested in what you have to say on the site; that’s the whole point. If the format of a site is to abrasive or boring people might ignore what you have to say purely based on the aesthetics of the format, regardless of what you have to say.

For my personal hypertext project i want something thats fresh, contemporary and pleasing to the eye. I think I’m going to use something musically focused to be the theme of the page, including headers, backgrounds, and possible link icons to other pages.  I like the idea of using different eras when designing the theme of my page. I thought about using a retro theme, but I’m also thinking about going in the other direction and using a technology infused futuristic feel for the site as well.

In Danah Boy’s article, “Why Youth (Heart) Social Network Sites: The Role of Networked Publics in Teenage Social Life”, she studies the way that teens interact with each other, and with the interfaces of Facebook and Myspace. Boyd’s article researches the social effects that accompany these social networking sites, and how the use of them has progressed. When Myspace first hit the mainstream it exploded on the web with millions of users. But when Facebook was introduced everyone attempted to move to the new, more exclusive social media site. Boyd looks at why this happened, and what the ramifications were of this shift.

Initially users shifted to Facebook from Myspace because it simply appeared as the new, more in depth, and more exclusive forum to socially interact as they had been doing. But Boyd argues there is a another important reason for the shift from Myspace to Facebook. Like Boyd says, many users started shifting to Facebook looking to the new site as a way to move up the social status ladder. When Facebook first hit the inter-webs it was only for the use of college students, and one had to be invited to Facebook to be able to create an account. This gave users the look that they were older, more mature, and thus higher on the social ladder. While some were permitted to use Facebook, others were still stuck using Myspace, which created a social gap between groups of people; essentially a social media induced social stratification.

In the interview with Kat in Boyd’s article, the young girl often uses the term “ghetto” to describe the type of people who use Myspace. Her association with the alleged lower class of Myspace users comes from certain social norm enforced by social media in her world. Facebook makes itself look better than Myspace to attract new users, causing those who stay behind to look of lower social status.

Danah says that while many chose to use both sites, those who only chose one tended to be from different backgrounds. Like I mentioned before, Facebook was originally intended for the use of college students and those who attended the top high schools in the country. Because of this, one of the ramifications of this elite status is that now, teens from lower income backgrounds are more likely to chose Myspace, and teens from more elite, higher income backgrounds tend to chose Facebook. Likewise, students who attended colleges that were ranked higher were more likely to be using Facebook over Myspace, compared to college students attending colleges ranked lower.

Facebook’s use was intended for the most elite, and the repercussions of that are absolutely shown in the demographics of its participants today. One of the greatest marketing tools to date is to make consumers believe that the product you are selling is only for the elite, or for an exclusive group of people. By making your product unattainable, at least for a period of time, you will greatly increase the demand for it. And when it is revealed to the public, the use of the product will be explosive. This is the pattern we saw with Myspace, Facebook, and now Google+. The flip side of this technique is the when the masses move on to the next big thing, those left in the dust with the old and outdated now posses a lower social [media] status.

It appears that one of Keen’s primary arguments is that the legitimacy of the content we take in is being threatened buy the increase in user-generated content. The explosion of bloggers and similar sources of information that have no ground to stand on has started to become the primary source for a lot of people to find their information. While the majority of these sources are legitimate, there are many that are not. And the incredible amount of information made readily available on the Internet makes it hard for us to decipher which is which. Keen warns that, “The distinction between trained expert and uninformed amateur becomes dangerously blurred.”

He goes on to warn about the dangers of the “cut and paste” culture we have adopted, where content is shared freely between people via the Internet. These actions have seriously injured the entertainment industry. With this free sharing of intellectual property we have, and will continue to see great change in the creative industries. While some argue that it only fosters further creativity, other worry that those who create should have the right to market their ideas in a way only they see fit. We are warned to consider the ramifications of blindly supporting a culture that encourages plagiarism.

In the video interview Keen inquires about the accusation that apple runs itself like a terrorist organization. He is referring to the way the Apple executive release information to those lower in the company. Information is released on a need to know basis so that nothing is ever leaked to the public. One of the biggest things that Job’s stressed was how to handle crisis management, and the events to follow his death. Also similar to a terrorist organization Apple prepared for the death of Job’s by transferring more power from Jobs to the board of executives. While keen argues that successions are more complicated than they appear, it’s argued that apple will not experience a hiccup in his absence. The transfer of power had been taking place for many years, and it’s believed that in the period leading up to his death the company was run completely independent of Jobs, where he was only there for creative purposes.

While the comparison of Apple to a terrorist cell operation may be extreme, the analogy serves the situation well. Like the incredibly intelligent man that he was, Jobs came to terms with the idea of his absence in the company, and prepared for it. Just another reason Apple is the successful giant that it is today.

When I first read the part of the story about Stephanie Lenz and he baby dancing to the prince song taken as a threat to the multi-billion dollar company that is Universal I found it both hilarious, and horrific. These companies are so paranoid and over powering that they fear someone hacking a youtube video just to avoid paying prince for 29 seconds of his song! I found this absolutely ridiculous. But that’s what its come down to, we are so paranoid and protective of original material being stolen that we forget what it was really created for: the enjoyment of the fans.

From my perspective, I find these arguments and debates of extreme interest. Over the last few years I have become more and more interested in the dance/electronic music scene, until it has become virtually all I listen to. With the DJ/Producers in the electronic scene, none of this makes any sense! Producers pray for their music to be downloaded, even release high quality rips of the songs for free! I worked with a company’s whose sole goal was to find the underated music of talented people and promote the music for free to as many people as possible. I’ve run a website devoted to that purpose for over a year and a half. Tijs Verwest, also known by his super-ego DJ Tiesto is one of the largest, if not the largest DJ in the electronic scene at the moment. In multiple interviews he is quoted as saying that “illegal downloading is how dance music survived.” The tireless promotion of free ideas and music to others created and almost underground family within the music community. And as you can see today, these efforts over the last 10 years have turned into the largest and quickest expansion of music genera in history.

My point being, if we stifle the sharing of and artists ideas we stifle the method is which the artists got their inspiration in the first place. Art and media go hand in hand. With this recent media/technology boom we have seen an exponential increase in the amount of art that has been produces. We need to keep creation alive, not lock it in a cell.

There has been much conversation, especially as of late about copyright, and the breaking of copyright laws by not only people stealing products of the artists, but by the artists themselves. In The Ecstasy of Influence, many references are made to popular artists misusing, stealing, and/or breaking the laws that pertain to copyrighting. When mentioning many of Bob Dylan’s work, they continue on to site the primary source of a line, or phrase that he “cleans up a little”, or “manipulates” to then convey his own interpretation of the message. Many call this plagiarism, or copyright infringement, but there are also those who believe this is the truest most naked form of inspiration. How were cavemen inspired to paint on walls? There were no trademarks on the landmarks around them, stating that one must pay royalties if ever hoping to capture the image on paper. And though it may seem like a stretch, I believe we are facing a similar situation today.

With the invention of remix culture, we face a new set of arguments about whether or not the use of a preexisting work, manipulated and re-mixed into a similar, but completely different work of art is stealing. As Roger Meyers Jr., animator for the hit TV show The Simpsons said, “You take away our right to steal ideas, where are they going to come from?”

This obscure idea of intellectual property is what the law takes into account when settling these matters. But how can one have intellectual property? I am not saying that every idea should be free for the public to rip off, steal, and turn for profit at their own hand, because how would the originators continue their creativity? What I’m saying, is that a line needs to be drawn somewhere.

The goal of the argument is to preserve raw creation, but it sometimes appears that we are stifling it in the fight to preserve it. The truth is that this is a delicate spectrum. If we regard to little as free use, then we smother the very inspiration that drives artists to begin their work in the first place. And if we regard too much as free use material, then the artists themselves lose all that in which they work for. It appears that or country is working too hasty at the subject. This issue needs deep and well thought out ideas before a legislative bill can be passed.

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