Copyrighting is a tricky and controversial topic.Many people are against copyright laws, but there are also many people are for the copyrighting laws that are set today.For me I have started to lean toward the later of the two.Long before being assigned to read and write a blog about copyrighting, I thought that the copyrighting laws were stupid and useless. I felt that the Copyrighting laws were limiting people’s scope and creative ability. But now reading the articles assigned in class, doing outside research, and talking to my brother about Copyrighting, I have changed my mind. I believe that the laws set in place to protect the creators creativity is necessary a worthwhile.
People apposed to the Copyrighting laws say that person to person file sharing has increased sales because it has allowed the users to “learn about music that they would not otherwise be exposed to,” Oberholzer-Gee, Strumpf, 2005). Others claimed that with copyright laws, people are limited with their creativity.An example of this is the American Edit album that was put out on the internet(Carapult, 2007). They claim without the ability to use other people’s music to play around with, new and interesting things will never be able to be created.I believe that both these claims are bogus.If a person wanted to be exposed to new music or things, all they have to do is to pay for them. The creators have spent a long time working on the finished product and deserve to collect the benefits that they have earned. Plus with songs only costing the buyer less then a dollar a song and music stores online making billions of songs available at a click, it shouldn’t be hard for the public to be exposed to new music.The other claim people say about the Copyright laws hindering creativity shows how naïve the people are who say this.You don’t need to take from someone else to be creative.If a person says this to me I think that they only have a limited outlook on things. People need to learn to think outside of the box and come up with new and original ways to create music instead of taking other peoples ideas.
Downloading Music
Downloading music for free is stealing, which is illegal. If you do download music for free, from site like LimeWire, DC++, and Napster, you should also know the consequences that come when you click that download button.
Here is a clip from SouthPark showing (a bit exaggerated) what could happen if you download music illegally……
If you get caught downloading illegal music you could be fined up to $150,000 (Ovalle, 2005). I don’t know about anyone else but I don’t have that kind of money to throw away on downloading something that costs less then a dollar on music stores such as iTunes. Also, if you believe that you wont get caught you are mistaken. Below is a case where a kid was caught and fined for his mistake of downloading illegal music.
Like I mentioned in the last paragraph, having to pay a fine for downloading illegal music is stupid. You are better off just downloading a song off of iTunes. It would be cheaper in the long run because you would always have that possibility of being caught. This is why I think that iTunes is the solution to the problem of people downloading illegal music.With iTunes you are able download millions of different songs, movies, shows, and audio books for cheap (Wikipedia, 2007). You are also able to either buy a whole album or show or you can just buy one song or episode that you want. ITunes is also cheap.No longer do you have to spend 15 dollars on a CD, $20 on a DVD or $40 for a season of a T.V. show.
As of right now though, people aren’t using iTunes as much as they should be because downloading music for free is still too easy to do.I think that the government should go after a lot more people who are downloading music.Right now I think that they are being too relaxed about it.I feel that if they can catch people stealing things from stores then they should be able to catch people stealing music off of music sites.Only then, will people start using iTunes more out of fear of being caught.
In an ending note, here is a video that I thought was interesting from when the iTunes store was first opening.....
E-mailing has changed the way we communicate today.I know for me, that over the past year I have sent out more then twice as much Email’s then I have actual letters.
E-mail was created in 1965, for users of a mainframe computer to communicate among each other.Almost a year late in 1966, E-mail was extended to convey messages between many different users on separate computers.One computer network that has changed the way we send E-mails today was ARPANET.ARPANET which stands for Advanced Research Projects Agency Network, was the first tocreate packet switching, which could use one link to communicate with more than one computer or network by putting data into “packets”.
The first major E-mail carrier was AOL.AOL kicked off around the year 1988 and was the first server to allow mass individuals to have an easy to use, communication system.Today, AOL has paved the way many other E-mail servers popped such as Yahoo, MSN, and G-mail.
E-mailing is quite simple. Servers like AOL, Yahoo, and G-mail have created a simple, easy to use system that allows even the most computer illiterate people to send E-mails with little difficulties as possible.Bellow is a diagram that shows the how the process of emailing actually works.
I believe that E-mail has changed our society in many ways.Lately our daily lives rely on the fast pace actions that technology has offered us.Anything that takes a couple of days to send is not tolerated anymore.We expect things to happen at a fast pace because we have gotten to rely on technology to help us through our everyday needs that in the past, may have taken longer to do.In this way email has drastically improved the fast pace lives we uphold for ourselves.People no longer have the patients to send mail through the postal service on a daily basis.E-mail has also given us a relatively cheaper way of sending information and letters.With email, many providers have offered free emailing, while postal service still requires you to pay for stamps to put on letters.E-mailing has also let us stay in contact with many people that we might have lost touch with in the past.It is much easier to get a persons E-mail then having to take down a whole street address and then sending a letter to them through the post office mail.E-mailing has changed the way we live and communicate today.No longer do we have to suffer through all the long and gruesome pains of communicating like people of the past did.
The only disadvantage that E-mail offers is that of personal touch that comes with sending a letter through the postal service.I know personally that when someone sends me a letter in the mail I get more excited than I do when someone sends me a letter in an E-mail.Sending a letter through the mail has a special personal touch that has been that way since early history.I believe that at this point no amount of communication technology can give you that feel of personal touch like a letter that has come from someone though the mail.
E-mail has been one of the greatest inventions that have come about since the creation of the Internet and World Wide Web.With E-mail people are able to send and receive messages fast and are able to stay in touch with a wider amount of people.Without E-mailing the world that we communicate with would be very different.E-mail is possibly one of the biggest inventions this world has seen so far.Everyday people are constantly checking their E-mail, not just once a day but every hour.Every business, school, or group communicates through E-mail.Today it is impractical to not have an E-mail account.Life has come to depend on it.
My name is Hilary and I’m a freshman here at University at Buffalo. I’m an intended Communication student and am interested in either pursuing a career in Web Design or Advertising. I am also looking to minor in Photography.
I want to pursue a career in Web design or Advertising because these careers allow you to be very creative.Something that I feel I am good at.I found out that I liked Web Design after I took an introductory class in high school.I liked Web Design because I am able to be creative, I would get to do a little writing, I would be able to take pictures, and I would get to work with computers.A career in Web Design would allow me to incorporate all of these interests into one career.I am interested in Advertising because I would love to see some of my creative ideas become reality.With Advertising I feel that I will be able to be a business woman while still being able to be creative and still have fun.At this time though, I am leaning more towards being in the Web Design field.I think that it would be a better fit for me in the long run.
I am also very interested in Photography.I am primarily a digital Photographer, but I also enjoy doing some film Photography.My favorite thing to shoot is nature, though I have tried Portraits and abstract Photography.I would major in Photography, but I’ve see that a person needs to have very good pictures to be able to make enough money to survive just from a career in Photography alone.This is why I would love to minor in Photography.This way I can make the money I need to live with a job in Web Design or as an Advertiser, but would also I would have the option of running a Photography business in the side.
Here are some of the Photographs that I have taken......
I have many hopes and expectations for this Introduction to the Internet class.One hope is that I am able to get a good grade.I always shoot for an A, but sometimes it doesn’t work out that way.That is why I hope to at least get a decent grade in this class.My other hopes for this class is to just have fun, and really learn about the internet as a tool for communication.At the end of this class I hope to further my knowledge on the Internet as a tool for communication.
