**As a side note, I thought I was being very creative with the title of this blog until the phrase was used in class and I realized it was the name of our reading... DARNIT.
I will be the first to admit that my idea of copyright was certainly skewed. I did not know that it was created in order to encourage the creation of new artwork.
You learn something new everyday, right?
We also talked about copyright recently in my Web Development class. We didn't go into much detail--instead we simply made that point that copyright is a serious thing and we should always be sure to give copyright where it is due.
Well, that's certainly easier said than done.
I fully stand by my decision to go into graphics design as a career. Still, I know that I am taking some risks by doing so. I could have my artwork stolen very easily. I could also get into a lot of trouble for using artwork in a design that was copyrighted.
Not that I plan on using copyrighted materials, of course.
My point is, the line between what is public domain and what is copyrighted online is extremely blurry. You can find an image online that exists on hundreds of different sites. Which site, if any, holds the copyright to that image? If it is unclear, do you simply not cite the image or do you cite it from wherever you found it just to be safe?
There is so much grey area that sometimes I'm afraid of getting lost in the land of copyright obscurity.
Friday, February 17, 2012
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Simply Sensational!
Is it too easy to become an internet sensation?
Take the Obama Girl video for instance. Out of all of the riveting topics that are written and talked about online, should that video really have become so popular? Should I really have a mental list of probably twenty-five or so of my favorite stupid internet cartoon videos that I watch instead of reading the news?
Probably not.
Sometimes, when I see the videos that become viral overnight, I lose a little bit more of my ever-dwindling faith in my generation. (Ex. Rebecca Black and Friday) Chances are, we should really care more about news that we do. I will be the first to admit that I know next to nothing about global current events and politics, and I am sure that I am not the only one.
So, why is it that my generation cares so little about things that affect them? Is it because songs like Friday are so good that we simply can't NOT watch them 24/7? Definitely not. I wish I had an answer or even a decent theory about why this is happening, but I don't.
I can at least speculate on why I think that I don't put more effort into reading the news... Put as simply as possible, there are too many idiots online. It would be quite an undertaking to look up a recent event or political standpoint and try to learn about it as objectively as possible. Practically every article or video is written or recorded by some random person in their living room. Even journalism is hard to trust because of the affiliations that news sources have with political powerhouses.
In short, the truth is so easily lost in the cacophony of voices that I chose to just let it be lost than risk pulling out all of my hair trying to dig it back up.
I think that this is a sad occurrence. I certainly wish I was more well-informed. I would love to be able to hold my own in a political argument or insert my own thoughts into a conversation about a recent global event. And sure, my own unwillingness to hunt for the facts is partially to blame. But that does not mean that all of the liars and half-truth-tellers online are blameless.
(Here's to hoping that this made sense to someone besides myself.)
**Maybe someone out there has a source that they would like to share with me that is relatively unbiased in their reporting? I'd be forever grateful.**
Politics and the Internet
I really enjoyed Cass Sunstein's point that "Unanticipated encounters, involving unfamiliar and even irritating topics and points of view, are central to democracy and to freedom itself."
I feel like this quote fits in very well with the topic of the YouTube debates. I wasn't very familiar with what the YouTube debates were until class, but I had heard the term before. Now, I am a huge fan. I wish that every election could be held in such a manner. Let's do away with the ridiculously over-scripted and ultimately fake and useless debates that are televised now, and bring in a new generation of debates that force the running politicians to actually think on their feet for once in their lives.
(Can anyone tell that I have a rather low opinion of our political system and the people in it?)
The American people are the ones taking the majority of the hits for what their politicians screw up, so why shouldn't they be able to voice their questions and concerns? Their questions may not sound as eloquent as the ones that we are used to, but at least they would be real questions straight from the mouths of those who are most affected by horrible political decisions.
Rather than writing a nice and neat letter to local congressman, creating YouTube videos puts faces on the many problems America has. They force politicians to realize that these are real people and real problems, not just letters that are cluttering up politicians' desks.
Politicians put on a glamorous mask and parade around with their eloquent words and pretty campaign art. But politics aren't pretty. They're dirty and terrible problems that need to be faced and solved, not swept under the rug. No longer should politicians be allowed to skate by under the radar, yammering on endlessly on topics that they are well-versed in and completely ignoring the topics that they know little to nothing about. The American people should be given the chance to be that irritating itch that politicians just can't seem to reach. They should force politicians to tread water in unfamiliar territory until they come up with a satisfying answer. Get rid of the crutches that politicians so often use and force them to be the upstanding and powerful figures that they claim they are.
Maybe it is just my opinion of the pitiful state that American politics are in, but burning the script of political debates and allowing politicians to break a sweat and provide real, substantial solutions to overbearing problems seems like a brilliant idea that should be given another shot.
I feel like this quote fits in very well with the topic of the YouTube debates. I wasn't very familiar with what the YouTube debates were until class, but I had heard the term before. Now, I am a huge fan. I wish that every election could be held in such a manner. Let's do away with the ridiculously over-scripted and ultimately fake and useless debates that are televised now, and bring in a new generation of debates that force the running politicians to actually think on their feet for once in their lives.
(Can anyone tell that I have a rather low opinion of our political system and the people in it?)
The American people are the ones taking the majority of the hits for what their politicians screw up, so why shouldn't they be able to voice their questions and concerns? Their questions may not sound as eloquent as the ones that we are used to, but at least they would be real questions straight from the mouths of those who are most affected by horrible political decisions.
Rather than writing a nice and neat letter to local congressman, creating YouTube videos puts faces on the many problems America has. They force politicians to realize that these are real people and real problems, not just letters that are cluttering up politicians' desks.
Politicians put on a glamorous mask and parade around with their eloquent words and pretty campaign art. But politics aren't pretty. They're dirty and terrible problems that need to be faced and solved, not swept under the rug. No longer should politicians be allowed to skate by under the radar, yammering on endlessly on topics that they are well-versed in and completely ignoring the topics that they know little to nothing about. The American people should be given the chance to be that irritating itch that politicians just can't seem to reach. They should force politicians to tread water in unfamiliar territory until they come up with a satisfying answer. Get rid of the crutches that politicians so often use and force them to be the upstanding and powerful figures that they claim they are.
Maybe it is just my opinion of the pitiful state that American politics are in, but burning the script of political debates and allowing politicians to break a sweat and provide real, substantial solutions to overbearing problems seems like a brilliant idea that should be given another shot.
CIPA, Filters, and Policies--OH MY!
I think that if this policy is properly implemented, it can be a very useful tool in schools and libraries. Although I doubt that children would purposely look up explicit content at school, it is possible that they could stumble upon it by accident. CIPA protects them from this and assures that they must use the computers for educational purposes.
Granted, there are ways around this. I'm sure most or all of us have previously used a proxy server to access internet pages that our school deemed inappropriate. More often than not, those pages were probably Myspace or Facebook. But, not all children know these tricks and chances are, even if they do, the sites that they access without protection will only be as harmless as Facebook.
Regardless of how harmless the sites children would visit if they got around a filter might be, the hope is that they don't stray from educational content. CIPA doesn't just filter out potentially harmful sites, it ensures that schoolwork is done on school computers. Let's face it, no matter how important we all thought (and maybe still think) that Facebook is in our daily lives, we can live without it for a few hours a day. Learning should definitely take precedence, and CIPA works towards accomplishing that goal.
It isn't quite as simple as that though. CIPA filters have a tendency to block sites that are educational, simply because they contain words that have been flagged as inappropriate. As a child, I found this side effect extremely annoying, which only made me want to procrastinate my paper more. As a teen in high school, not being able to look things up because of filters on the computers made me feel like I was being treated as a child when I shouldn't have been. Knowing that these filters can be modified and even shut off eases my concerns a bit though. Unfortunately, I didn't know that changes could be made to the filters until it was too late (about a week ago). I think an effort should be made to make children, teens, and even adults that utilize these public computers aware of the fact that the filters can be modified upon request--with a legitimate reason.
Granted, there are ways around this. I'm sure most or all of us have previously used a proxy server to access internet pages that our school deemed inappropriate. More often than not, those pages were probably Myspace or Facebook. But, not all children know these tricks and chances are, even if they do, the sites that they access without protection will only be as harmless as Facebook.
Regardless of how harmless the sites children would visit if they got around a filter might be, the hope is that they don't stray from educational content. CIPA doesn't just filter out potentially harmful sites, it ensures that schoolwork is done on school computers. Let's face it, no matter how important we all thought (and maybe still think) that Facebook is in our daily lives, we can live without it for a few hours a day. Learning should definitely take precedence, and CIPA works towards accomplishing that goal.
It isn't quite as simple as that though. CIPA filters have a tendency to block sites that are educational, simply because they contain words that have been flagged as inappropriate. As a child, I found this side effect extremely annoying, which only made me want to procrastinate my paper more. As a teen in high school, not being able to look things up because of filters on the computers made me feel like I was being treated as a child when I shouldn't have been. Knowing that these filters can be modified and even shut off eases my concerns a bit though. Unfortunately, I didn't know that changes could be made to the filters until it was too late (about a week ago). I think an effort should be made to make children, teens, and even adults that utilize these public computers aware of the fact that the filters can be modified upon request--with a legitimate reason.
Monday, February 13, 2012
Conspiracy!
Well, I've definitely been slacking in the blogging department over the last few weeks. Apparently there is a conspiracy on campus and all of my teachers made everything due at the exact same time. NOT COOL.
Anyways, I'll be blogging alot over the next 24 hours or so about all of the things that I've missed in the last few weeks!!
Anyways, I'll be blogging alot over the next 24 hours or so about all of the things that I've missed in the last few weeks!!
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
To Facebook, Or Not To Facebook.
Please disregard the fact that I used the word 'Facebook' as a verb in my blog title and continue reading my post...
I don't know anyone besides my younger cousin who is underage and on Facebook. It is probably for this reason that I don't really have an opinion on younger children being on Facebook. The only thing annoying that my cousin does is send me too many It Girl app requests that I have to deny. And, quite honestly, I would prefer to have her use Facebook rather than roam the entire internet at age ten. I am quite sure that, if she didn't have a Facebook account, there are thousands of other, more dangerous websites that she could visit instead.
I honestly didn't realize that my cousin had to lie to get her Facebook account until we talked about it in class. It has been so long since I had to worry about being "old enough" to be online that I forget that there are age restrictions on so many websites. Even so, I know that young children aren't the only ones lying on the internet. It actually bothers me more to know that older people are lying and posing as younger people online than it does to know children are lying just to get a Facebook account.
I absolutely loathe Facebook pages for dogs or other animals. I think that these pages are wastes of server space that only clutter cyberspace. Just upload photos of your pet on your own personal page, don't make it it's own page--that's ridiculous.
Other fake pages are just as ridiculous, but slightly less annoying. When people actually maintain the webpages as if they were the character and keep it witty and enjoyable, I don't mind. When there is nobody maintaining the page and it is only cluttering up the internet is when I begin to mind.
I wouldn't mind if Facebook implemented more strict rules that users must follow in order to get and keep an account. I think it would get rid of many pointless pages online and make Facebook a more enjoyable site to browse. Then, users would know that pages would always be regularly active and not fake and utterly useless. Deleting all of the clutter on Facebook might make it a more enjoyable place for everyone.
Ultimately, I think fake pages are much more of a problem than underage users.
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