Prompt 5

I apologize-as many of you realized already, I accidentally named the last entry prompt 3 instead of 4. So for prompt 5, I would like you to: work on your first formal paper. You are officially excused from a response - and reply - this week.

Promt #4

Okay.. So I use a lot of technologies. I use FaceBook, Hi5 Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail, Google, Bing, Orkut, I use facebook most often at least on a bigger ratio than other mentioned above. Most of the time I go to facebook to see who is Online or if there is any comment s on my status or my pictures or nevertheless on my videos. I also post videos and movie clips of video. Usually I post my own videos that I have created. I also download the songs from youtube and put my short video clips in to a movie maker and mash them up. The software I use for this is called CyberLink. CyberLink is ranked as #1 in top 10 video editing softwares in America. I use Cyberlink to make Videos and also to create animations of my own type. Facebook has been a great tool for me to communicate, I have my families back in Colorado and I miss them so much. Facebook has been the greatest of all tools that is connecting me to the touch of my family. I think its one of the best thing to talk to people and make more friends. So facebook is useful for that purpose. I usually don’t tag pictures, coz I don’t feel like but People tag me a lot.. I have been taged in more than 1000 pictures so far. I just remove some tags because they are worthless to keep on my profile.

I do not subscribe games on computer. The only that I subscribe is a music software called IRdio. I don’t know if anybody uses this Software, But I think its really cool.. The good thing about this software is I can download any song of my choice for just 14 dollars a month.

I learned about this things because like all the other teenagers I also want to be creative in someways. I have seen my friends posting and making their own videos that has also inspired me in many ways.

Prompt # 4 - Natalie

Facebook is most likely the biggest distraction I have from school work. Access to it is everywhere, on your computer, on your phone, iPod, and now even through your cable TV networks. I think that Facebook is more than just a social networking site that connects you to your friends, all on its own Facebook is its own "virtual world". I know for a fact I find out so much information about my family, friends and even the world by simply logging on.
I recall the after shock of the earthquake in August. I was laying on my couch, extremely sick, I honestly thought that the fact my couch was shaking was all a side effect of my medicine and the severity of my fever. It was not until I checked my Facebook that I quickly found out that I was not the only person who felt their house shake. I actually immediately turned on the television to see the news and even the news hadn't reported the earthquake after shock. I do not ofcourse condon the idea of relying on Facebook to be your news source, but there are times that I find out details about life and the world through my friend's statuses.
When I usually go online, I check my notifications, friend's statuses and their pictures. Recently with this new update, I feel like even more of a Facebook "stalker". I find out information about friends writing on their friend's walls, who aren't even my friends, which is considerably weird, thinking that my friends know my every move as soon as I log on. If I like a picture, comment, or status, everyone immediately sees in the side bar what it was. I think that because of this update, I have recently been using Facebook less.
Another website I have recently become addicted to is Tumblr. It is a website where people blog through the use of pictures, and writing. I use the word addicted because I find myself not even logging onto Facebook to go on Tumblr for 5 minutes and stay for an hour. With my work load right now, it might actually be a bad idea to even have such a website available. Re blogging the posts and seeing what people are blogging about is actually more interesting than seeing my friends complain about school and the weather on Facebook. But unlike Facebook, Tumblr does not keep my connected with my friends from home, so I do still check it often.

Prompt #4 Response

As online technologies have developed further, I believe that people will be able to do anything with online technologies in near future. The various kinds of online technologies, such as Facebook and Skype, enable people to feel that they are connected each other. Because of this characteristic of the online technologies, people who don’t live with family or have friends in places far from where they live use Facebook or Skype as their cheapest way to contact each other.

Like most teenagers, I also spend quite a long time to do Facebook. I often post funny pictures; of course I tagged them, and write some stories on my wall. Surprisingly, I often see the comments coming up on my stories right after I post. Then, I feel like they are my neighbors who are right next to me, sharing many stories each other.

Besides posting stories, pictures or videos on Facebook, people do also chat on face to face. This is quite similar to the main purpose of Skype – communicate each other in online. This is a real conversation, except that people cannot touch each other. If anyone who has only a laptop with cam, everyone can talk to anyone whom he or she wants to talk to.

Then why do people who live with family and have friends in near places use Facebook? Some people do facebook simply they get bored. They want to listen the other’s story and also tell your story. Other people use facebook to meet new people to socialize. Many people actually add their new friends even if they never meet them before.

In addition to these reasons, most importantly, people use Facebook because people are always curious about the other people. Who is he? What does he do? Where does he live? What does he like to do? All those questions might seem to be weird, like a stalker. However, I believe that having curiosity about the other is one of the human natures.

It is certain that developing online technologies will soon make another renovation. I’m ready to be impressed!

respose

yeah, you're right. Everything is much easier since it is all accessible through one website. To be able to connect with all of our friends, outside of campus is great, since we do not get to do that at all any more. Sometime I thank Facebook for the bonds that I have kept standing. You are able to communicate with those you don't communicate with on a daily basis, which is amazing.

Prompt 4 Response

At the digital technology era, I have learned how to use online social softwares since I was very little. The first thing I touched about social softwares on my PC is the most popular Chinese messenger called QQ when I was at Grade 2 of Primary School. When I was little, my purpose to use this messenger was as simple as to chat with my friends. However, as I grew older, many new social webpages such as Facebook and Blogs were created.

When I came to the U.S. for high school. My friend introduced me some Blogs online so that we can contact each other when I get to the U.S.. I began to use Chinese Blogs to keep in touch with my family and friends. Whenever I feel homesick, I just go up to the page and check out what's going on with my friends and family. Meanwhile, I also uploaded pictures of mine at the U.S. and make sure my family knew that everything around me was going well.

Now, when I get to my College, University of Rochester, I use Facebook and Chinese blogs for different purpose. Instead of just checking what my family and friends are doing, I use Facebook to plan and post events for my current association - Chinese Students Association. Besides that, after seeing others posting videos online, I learned how to post videos of our events on Facebook for people to see it. I also learned how to tag people in a picture or a video. Facebook is not the only webpage that does tagging and posting videos. Renren and Weibo, the most Chinese blogging took the idea from Facebook as well. In China, Chinese students use Renren more than Facebook. In order to let Chinese students know what events of Chinese Students Association is going on, I also helped post announcement and events on Renren.

I chose to use these webpages because they make my life so much easier.

Prompt #4

The only online technologies I use are Google, or better yet, Wikipedia, Facebook, Jango, and my email. When I use a site like Wikipedia I use it in order to get fast accessible information. People say that it is not an accurate source, which is true, but sometimes when you need a fast answer to something you don't feel like researching, Wikipedia is the way to go!

On Facebook I do everything I used to do on Myspace and even more. On Facebook I write quotes I find online or on my readings that I find interesting. I look at pictures that my friends tag me on and sometimes I take those pictures and post them as my profile pictures. It is also my way of communicating with the world outside of my circle of friends. I am able to get the latest news, since I almost never care to watch the news. it is also a way for me to know what new songs came out and to remember old songs that I have forgotten about, since people upload songs they are currently listening to on Facebook. On Facebook, I also get a chance to see what people are doing back home, which is great.

On Jango I listen to music. What I hate about Jango is that, although it is free to listen to popular music on the radio, we also get to hear music "regular" people create. It is a way to listen to your favorite music while being exposed to the music of others that resemble your music interest.

All I do when I check on my email is see what people have sent me and keep myself informed about potential events I would decide to attend.

I guess I'm a self-sufficient girl. No one specifically gave me a guide telling me how to get to these sources. I found Jango and Wikipedia through Google search, while an email was mandatory for school, and I learned all the tricks to Facebook through trial and error and by clicking different tabs that gave me different results.

Prompt #4

Facebook has been one of the popular website in today’s world. It is addictive for all level of people from child to old. If I would say it is one of my addictive website, it won’t be any problem for other because there is possibilities it could be addictive for other as well. So yah… Facebook is where I waste my free time mostly. During my high school I used to check my Facebook once or twice before I go to the bed because I wasn’t allow opening Facebook in school during the day. Now I have new ipod, laptop and I have Wi-Fi access everywhere around the campus I started being addictive to Facebook like most of the teenagers on campus.

Facebook doesn’t only take my free time but it also updates me with many upcoming events. It’s not far from today I used to get an email if there is any sort of events but now any event can be posted in Facebook easily. Usually, I get event request in Facebook now and I think it is better and quick to do RSVP in Facebook rather than replying email. I am not a big fan of updating my status and posting things but I love to comment in people’s statuses and pictures. I like the fact that in Facebook I could see the pictures of my friends, family, relatives and everybody I miss and no matter which corner of the world they are located. I have more than 100 friends in Nepal so it would be hard for me to keep in touch with all of them if there wouldn’t be website like Facebook. One fact about my Facebook page is I have more than 200 photos that I got tag from my friends. Unfortunately I don’t tag photo that much. I think this is because I don’t download picture much in Facebook. If somebody tag me photo I always gladly accept it.

Chatting with friends is another common thing that I do in Facebook. However, I don’t prefer to chat with the same friends those who I meet everyday. Every time I go online in Facebook I always check if anybody from far is online. For example, if I have any friend from Nepal online I love to give more than an hour to them to share each other stories. This is the favorite part of Facebook for me so far. As a saying, “Practice makes man perfect,” nobody has taught me to do all of these stuffs in Facebook. This is all I learned by myself because of the fact that I have spent so much time one it. Beside Facebook I use website like webs.com, blogspot.com and amazon.com where I can do shopping without wasting much time. I had open one website, www.nycnepal.blogspot.com where I used to post some Nepali and English movies, news and any interesting things that makes me curious. Later, I recognized the viewers of this website were so damn high and I started getting lots of comments where I had minimum time to reply all of them. Approximately, I started getting like more than 10 questions, comments and suggestions everyday that makes me feel freaked out because I had to focus on my study rather than improving the quality of my website. If I would have more free time I would still keep using this website but unfortunately I chose to temporary close it.

Prompt #4

The online websites I visit everyday are Facebook and YouTube, and I try to check my email everyday as well, but sometimes I forget. I usually end up going on Facebook several times per day because there is just so many things to do! Especially now that I am in college and away from all of my family and friends, I tend to go on more often so that I can keep in touch with everyone from home. I don't generally post statuses on Facebook, but I do every once in a while. For the most part, I just upload pictures and videos so that everyone can see what I am doing and so that I can share my experiences with my friends and family. It's nice to go through my own pictures and videos every so often because it allows you relive the experiences and your memories of those experiences will never die. I don't just go on Facebook for myself though- I always look at my friends' photos and statuses and I comment on various posts so that I can stay up to date on what is going on in their lives.

I like listening to the radio, but everyone knows that the radio plays the same 10 songs over and over each day and you get sick of them after a while. That's why I like YouTube. If I hear a song on the radio that I like, I go on YouTube and look up other songs by the same artist. This way, you can listen to more songs that you like, but you won't be listening to the same exact song all of the time. I also like to listen to older songs too that you may not hear on the radio very often, so this website is very convenient for me.

I never used to check my email every often, and I'm still not very good about it, but I know that it is very important for me to do. Many people send out important reminders about the dates and times of certain events through email, so I have learned through experience that I will miss out on things if I don't check my email regularly.

Even though these online websites are important to me, they can be very distracting! (Especially when I have and assignment to do and I am looking for anything that will distract me for a little bit) It is so easy to spend an hour online without even realizing it, but no matter how convenient, entertaining, or fun certain things are, they will always have downsides. I will try to cut back on the amount of time I spend online, but I'm not sure how successful I will be.

HELP!! =(

I don't know what prompt number four is ...

Prompt #4

There are many online technologies that I use (facebook, various websites, email, skype, online chat, etc) but I think the only one that really matters to me is my blog. My best friend was actually the one who got me into blogging; she started her blog when she was going through an especially rough patch in her life, and reading it was so inspirational to me. Before she showed me her blog, I had no familiarity with the world of blogging, but it's so easy to become a part of the blogging community. There are pieces on my blog that I am especially proud of; I write poetry on my blog because I would not feel comfortable doing it anywhere else (where people I know might see). I share any thoughts, emotions, feelings, and quirks freely on my blog. To me, my blog is the journal that I can instantly connect with; because it saves me the time of pulling out a pencil and opening a leather bound notebook, it seems that I am all the more drawn to it. I used to try and blog at least once every day, no matter how dull or exciting my day was. At first, I would post up to five times per day just because it was so easy to speak my mind without needing a physical audience. My blog is actually like my confidant; my blog is the best friend that is literally always there. I know that sounds really lame and sad, but I'm not really ashamed to admit that my blog really does mean that much to me. Sometimes when I am really upset, I go on a long run so that the pounding of my heart and the rhythm of my feet hitting pavement settle my mind; now, when I am most upset, I also have my blog to turn to. The physical typing on a keyboard helps me relax; I can type as loudly and obnxiously as I want when I sit there and blog. Sometimes there are just things that I need to get out of my mind, and there isn't any particularly perfect moment to do so; my blog is the always perfect opportunity. Sometimes I will just say one sentence on my blog, but I just needed to say that one sentence; I can't do that in an actual conversation with a live person. As I got more and more into blogging, I began to also blog pictures that I found that I liked. Soon, I pretty much blogged about anything and everything that occurred to me. Only my best friend knows the url of my blog because I wanted it to be a place where I never had to worry about being judged, or even worry about appearances at all. I wanted to be an annonymous person with annonymous thoughts, and secretly I wanted people to hear me without ever knowing anything about me. I think that's the best way for anyone to get an honest opinion, so I left my blog public to anyone without actually sharing the url with anyone. Maybe the opinion of millions of strangers couldn't ever matter or affect me, but I still wanted the possibility of my thoughts being exposed in a very veiled manner. I'll never matter to more than a handful of people in the world and I'll only meet a handful, but through my blog I feel like I can reach an audience of millions without ever having to look for them. It's comforting, soothing, and stress-relieving-not too mention how fun I have when posting pictures and decorating my blog. You know those little pleasures in life? This is mine (:

Prompt Four Response

I go online about 6 times a day. Every time I go online is to do three things; go on Facebook, go on Peoplemagazine.com and listen music on YouTube. It has been a habit for the past 3 years. Those three websites are what connects me to the world beyond my surrounds. It also helps me stay updated with the media, of the people I know and of fashion.

Facebook I use mostly use to stay in touch with my friends from Ecuador and from back home. When I get on Facebook, the first thing I do it look up recent photos. I find it very interesting to see photos of what people have been up to rather than actually reading their status. I do not only use Facebook to find out things about people I am close to, but as well as of people I just met. When I met a person and they send me a friend request, I use Facebook to help me build an image of that person. It is a good way to find out some background information. People like to call this “stalkerish,” but I know everyone does it.

Facebook is, also, a place I can make certain things of my life public. I love uploading photos. They photos do not necessary have to be of me, but of the people around me, or of random object that reflect a great memory. Just like I enjoy having updates about people, I feel like my friends would want the same from me. Most of the pictures I upload, I tag people on them so that their friends can see pictures of them. I only tag myself in pictures in which I believe I look good in. If someone tags me in a picture that I do not like, I simply untag myself.

I go on the People magazine website because I love to look up different trends rising in the fashion industry. The three famous females I love to follow are Kim Kardasian, Jennifer Aniston and Selena Gomez. All three have a unique style that I wish to have. I get ideas on what to wear in certain occasion or how to do my hair. The People website was very helpful when I was deciding what to wear to Prom, as well as how to do my hair and makeup.

YouTube consists of the same purpose as People magazine does. I use YouTube in order to be updated on new songs. I do not listen to the radio, so I use the Internet because I am online most of the time. Also, when I do homework, I go to YouTube to play music because it helps me concentrate. YouTube has all sort of music, so I sometimes listen to random songs. If I like them, I take the link and convert the video to mp3 and add it to my iTunes.

Recently, I have been using the Internet more than ever; mainly because I have to use websites, like Blackboard and Webwork to do homework. Half of my classes require blogging therefore I need to be online most of the time. I do not only use the Internet on my computer, but on my phone too. The other day I used it to find out where one of my classes were. It is really convenient. It makes me wonder how I was able to go on with my life with Internet technology.

Response to Prompt#4

There are many social network sites that I often visit such as Facebook, and Twitter. To of course keep in touch with my friends and what is going on in their lives. I post pictures of any new or important events that i've been to that i want to share with my friends. In a sense it's kind of like telling a story of a party that you went to but through pictures because you are not able to sit down and have that conversation with friends that are far away. It gives them a bit of a sneak peak into your life and what you're up to. It helps you keep a steady relationship with people you might be too busy to do so otherwise.

Also it makes things easier because there all these different applications put into one website. Facebook allows you to upload a video and share with friends (as youtube does), allows you to share photos ( as photo bucket does). Also the efficiency of creating events and inviting your friends. There has been surprise parties, dinners, just over all times where I would like to create events for a social gathering with friends, it's very easy to invite everyone with one click rather than sending out individual invites to each person, it's much more efficient. Also games like Uno brings friends together, or even allow you to meet new people when random players are being selected.

The reason i use all these apps and options on Facebook is because it's easily accessible and more efficient. Since everything is in one compact place it's not hard to locate something and someone and do what you want to do. I learned usually by asking people or i would see someone post a photo or video and see a button that says "create your own" and it shows me how to so again with accessible instructions it's easier to do so.

Prompt #3 peer comment

I think you make a great point with the Google maps and news mash-up-you should definitely incorporate your belief into your essay.

Your thesis is great and it gets right to the point, but you're absolutely correct. I agree that you need something more to make it specific, but your problem is not the aspect of the educational definition. You could explain what educational is in your body paragraph-probably your intro?

I think what your thesis needs is for you to tell us why the law should be reformed? What is it that you want to persuade us about?

* I hope this helped Chong...Best of luck on your paper =)

Prompt #3

Please remember to tag or "label" your post with your name. I *think* this will allow you to quickly check to see if someone responded to your post.

For this week, I'd like you to write about the kinds of online technologies you use, how, and why.

So - I'd like for you to move beyond, "I use Facebook to see what my friends are doing". Say more - HOW do you use facebook? Do you post videos? pictures? do you tag pictures? plan events? subscribe to games? and why do you do these things? How did you learn how to do these things?

Prompt #3

My Tentative Thesis Statement

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) should actively involved to figure out all illegal network operation in colleges because it gives access to other students to download the song illegally and to share the illegal file, which is not beneficial to college environment and even to the society.

Introduction and Claims

My paper intends the issue of illegal activities in college and how it affects the college environment and the society. In this 21st century the technology improves the standard of people’s life everyday. Despites of the positive impacts of technology there are many negative impacts as well in which operating the illegal computer programs that access download to illegal songs and free illegal file sharing in colleges. In this paper I am using three different claims. The first claim would be from the author Veiga, Alex where he had clearly demonstrated the fact that Students settle file-swapping lawsuit with music industry. The second claim would be from DeVoss and porter’s article where they had talked about the file sharing and it’s consequences in college environment. Unfortunately, I haven’t found the third claim that I would put in my formal paper. I am still in the process of doing more research to find the third claim.

Promt # 3

My tentative thesis statement for my formal paper # 1 is “Todays copyright law rewards the already created work but never promotes the creativity that can be built upon the old work.

Copy right laws has always rewarded the original work and never really encourages the potentials that can be built upon, for example it respects Bill gates who invented Microsoft and not the people who buy his products, because of which he is rich today. These days copyright laws protect the producers and tax the customer, it limits the work that can be created, like the Girl talk, the guy who does mash ups and remixing. He is actually communicating to the world in different perspectives of music. He is making others dance and laugh and at the same time people are liking it? What’s so freaky about this? It’s against the law. The law states that the original work of art cannot be copied or distributed explicitly without the legal permission of the owner, and girltalk fails this boundary of the law.

There are no ups and downs to the arguments of copyright; there are people who prefer thick protection and the people who prefer thin. It really depends on what we consider and believe to be original and authentic, the original work is sometime stolen from the ideas of our four fathers which were made on those days when there was no internet around and no copyright laws were made. Like todays rap music are often abstracted from there and there might be few legal cases that has contributed to those actions.

Let’s take an example of soft wares that are designed to create mash up; these soft wares have helped many people in creating and exploring the music’s of their kind. The law doesn’t respect that. It’s against the law to be creative on this way. So today’s law about copyright is not promoting the talents but it’s instead keeping them to the doom.

Prompt #3 Response

STRUCTURED PLAN - Q1) Locate a remixed work and make an argument.

Tentative Thesis Statement:

The comic strips ‘Garfield Minus Garfield’ created by removing the main character Garfield from the original Garfield is not in violation of copyright law, since an idea can be copied and borrowed to convey a significant message, provoke a reaction or evoke an emotional response.

Introduction:

As the digital technology and the network have continuously developed, the artists have created more variable remixed works. Following this, we can easily see that the remixed works become much popular than the original works. The comic strips ‘Garfield Minus Garfield’ can be one example. If the artists create their remixed works by basically using the original works, are they in violation of copyright law?

People do not make new works out of nothing. ‘Garfield Minus Garfield’ is a web project created by Dan Walsh, dedicated to removing Garfield from the Garfield comic strips in order to reveal the existential angst of a Garfield’s owner Mr. Jon Arbuckle….

Sources/Arguments:

** Locate some strips of ‘Garfield Minus Garfield’ and a URL of a video.

Strips from: http://art110.wikispaces.com/Sullivan-Rebecca-P3

Video URL: http://www.collegehumor.com/video/5945411/remix-garfield-minus-garfield

1. An article from the New York Times ‘Is the Main Character Missing? Maybe Not.’ (Doty, Cate 2008)

2. An example of ‘Mickey Mouse’ with the argument of O’Connor from the article ‘Devoss & Porter’

3. An example of ‘Girltalk / Mashup’ from the article ‘Maciack’

Conclusion:

In short, I suggest that the remixed work of ‘Garfield Minus Garfield’ is not violating copyright law, because it is important to credit the work of creators in order to motivate creations and to encourage benefits to society….

Prompt # 3 Response

Free Writing:

It is easier for me to outline what I am going to write about before I start writing, so this blog post is a bit difficult. Looking over the assignment description, I already decided that I am going to focus on prompts two and three. In order to write what reforms should be made to the copyright law, I have to explain why I think it should be changed. What better way of explaining that then writing on how our personal freedom is being violated.

So far this is what I have for my thesis: The copyright law has certain limitations that violates what everyone is legally entitled to; that is the freedom of speech and the freedom of expression.

Some points I am going to mention:

- Mash-ups and remixes should be allowed. They should not be banned because they are just being used as a way to convey emotions. Also, it is a way to be creative; it is a form of art. That correlations with freedom of expression. One song cannot convey the same thoughts and feelings like re-mix can.( talk about certain clips of the video and Girl talk)

- I am not saying the copyright law should be eliminated because there are some valid reasons of having it. If people sell an artist's work then that should be considered illegal. They are basically taking the whole song and making profit from it.

-Remixes increases creativity. In order to be successful, people need to be able to connect through creativity. http://blog.ted.com/2008/11/the_powerful_li.php

creativity helps unit more people. Also, it allows people to express themselves in the best way possible. When a person goes to dance they should have the privilege to enjoy a piece of art (music) in which they can connect to. There is a greater chance of this happening in a remix than from one song.

Prompt 3

Brainstorm:

I chose the second essay topic for my first paper: Should copyright laws be reformed (changed) or enforced? Specifically, which facets of the law would you recommend be either changed or enforced?

I am actually applying the piece of Copyright Law that I examined in this coming paper: “A design is “original” if it is the result of the designer's creative endeavor that provides a distinguishable variation over prior work pertaining to similar articles which is more than merely trivial and has not been copied from another source” (Copyright Law: § 1301. Designs protected). The definition for the term “original design” is defined vaguely. However, this piece of Copyright Law seems limiting people’s creativity because people cannot borrow ideas from “original” work and invent a new project. The Copyright Laws also violates people’s freedom to share, because the Copyright Laws are trying to protect author’s authorship and restricting people from sharing information or ideas with each other.

My tentative thesis is: Copyright Laws should be reformed because it limits people’s creativity and violates people’s freedom to share.

1. For my first argument, I am using the Mickey Mouse argument from DeVoss and Porter’s article. If Disneyland had not borrowed idea from someone else, one of the most popular characters Mickey Mouse would not even be created to bring entertainment to people.

2. For my second argument, I am using Lenz’s video (kid dancing) argument from Lessig’s article. The protection of authorship is in fact limiting people’s freedom to share ideas and thoughts.

Conclusion: Go back to my thesis - Copyright Laws should be reformed because it limits people’s creativity and violates people’s freedom to share. If we do not reform the Copyright Laws, the current Copyright Laws will continually harm human cultural development.

Prompt #3

Tentative Thesis: Creative Commons provides an opportunity for people to use existing work for their own purposes, which eliminates some of the gray areas of the copyright law and expands the creativity of the public.

All original works are protected by copyright in which all rights are reserved. Creative Commons is an alternative to the copyright law. It allows the artist to have some rights reserved instead of all of them. This increases the amount of access and sharing the public has to these original works of art. In my paper I intend to:

1. Provide a brief background about Creative Commons

2. Establish that there are gray areas of the copyright law that need clarification

3. Describe how copyright limits creativity and freedom and provide examples

4. And finally put it all together to prove that Creative Commons addresses these problems and provides a way for people to build upon the works of others without worrying about breaking the law.

Prompt #3

Free Write:
I can't really say that I have a full thesis yet, for I'm still unsure about my topic being a mash-up. I want to do something that revolves around parody films, (Vampires Suck, Scary Movie 4, Disaster Movie, Dance Flik ect). If I do this subject I wouldn't be questioning the legality of these movies, for I'm positive that these producers and so forth pay a lot of money to be sure that they have no legal trouble. What I intend on doing is possibly comparing these movies to mash-up music videos and how money is of an unreasonable amount of money big time producers can make these movies and create new ideas out of some one's work but mash-up artists such as Girl Talk, are prohibited from creating their own version of a song with a different meaning. I think that these two industries have many of the same attributes and that the legal issues that these mash-up artists are facing are seemingly all based on money issues with the artists. But if the artists is already

For now my tentative thesis would probably go something like this, although knowing myself it will change about 100 times before I feel okay about it:
Mash-ups have recently created much controversy with their explicit illegal behavior, even though in the past the government has stood behind piracy and allowed the illegal activity to go on without any serious repercussions. What needs to happen now is change, the law now is obviously not working with the advancements in technology, and if they don’t adjust the laws, then there will be an ongoing battle between the public and these businesses.

Response to Prompt #3

Free write...

Tentative thesis- As a mash-up artist, Dj Jayhood is not violating the copyright law because although he uses other artist's songs as components to his mixes, his overall product is still original and new.

Though the copyright law has many components and chapters, it's overall purpose is to protect the talent and "original" work of artists so it's not used by others without consent. I use the word original very loosely because these days there are many different definitions of what an original piece of art actually contains when we are discussing different pieces such as movies, music or writing.

As stated in the Maciak reading, no invention this day is so revolutionary that it presents a complete new idea that has never been heard of. All pieces of art are built off of things in the past, taking small chunks of ideas from different places and placing it together to make it your own and create something new. That is the process of mash-ups and that is what those artists are doing by taking small pieces of other songs and mixing them to create their own piece of music.

If mash-ups are a violation of copyright laws then we would have to re-evaluate the music that has been produced over the past years. Many artists in the present use samples from past songs as a chorus or imply it into their song somehow. Are they too stealing from these past artists? A present example would be Jay Z & Kanye West new song named "Otis" which has a sample from the Otis Redding song "Try a little tenderness" that plays throughout the whole song. Since he has passed, the money paid to use this sample goes to the labels.

The purpose for copyright laws is to protect the work of others not for labels to consume more money. Which is why copyright laws need to be reformed to where mash-up artist are allowed to express their creativity because at the end of the day they are not copying anything, just simply adding onto already publicly published work.

Artists like Dj Jayhood who is known for mashing and remixing different songs of all different genres to create a club song can be viewed as violating copyright laws because he uses all these different songs to create his own mix. But in reality it shouldn't be a violation because he is just building on to what was already published to the public which he should have every right to do. Also his purpose for releasing his mix is completely different than the original artist's.

prompt #3 response.

Free Write...

I never thought of mashups as copyright violations; for example, if you mash up crime data with Google maps so that people can look up all the pedophiles in their area, it is actually considered copyright violation. This makes no sense because you are in a sense harming the community more by not allowing this than you are harming the creator for taking his original work. Plus, I doubt that the crime statistitians would be offended if you “used” their work without permission. Sometimes you have to think about the purpose that the work is being used for; for example, why would crime statistics be published if the publisher did not want them to be made known to the public? Isn’t the publishing of these crime statistics for the benefit of the greater good? By knowing these, it can help keep families safe. These statistics can dictate where new schools should be built. It could dictate which bus route you take on the way home from work. It can dictate where you want to raise a family. It can tell you a lot about a neighborhood. It can potentially save your life if you avoid the places with high crime rates. It can make you better prepared for emergency situations should you come across one.

My tenative thesis is "Copyright law that restricts access to educational material should be reformed to allow free usage."

The problems with this thesis statement based on what ran through my head during the free write is that this seems to be too general of a statement. What is educational material? (What is considered "educational" versus "not educational") Where in copyright law does it dictate rules for "educational material"? (I feel like that may mean going through all hundreds of pages of the document...) I am not sure this thesis can be strongly supported within 2-3 pages simply because a bulk of it would need to be clearly defining the parameters of my meaning. Based on the ideas that I can up with in my free write, it seems that I would most be interested in focusing specifically on internet mashups...but that in itself may limit my topic too much. I feel that the ideas for support of internet site mashups that I have come up with are very shallow, like surface ideas that are easily stated in just a sentence. I kind of want to center my claims around the idea of improving well-being, but I am having a hard time narrowing it down into specific aspects that can actually be elaborated on. For example, when I say "we should allow internet site mashups that show the criminals within a 5 mile radius of schools because this will help keep kids safe", it's one of those "well duh" statements. I mean, who is really goig to argue that we should allow pedophiles to be near kids? I really don't have much I need to elaborate on there. I am coming to a road block in coming up with ways to prove that these internet site mashups can be beneficial, particularly by picking reasons that may not seem so obvious. Any ideas??

 Is anyone specifically focusing on the "multi-layered" aspect of remixed video files? I feel that we could probably bounce ideas off each other because they are sort of similar to the idea of internet site mashups (:

Prompt #3

Paper #1 asks that you make a specific argument about copyright. For this week's prompt, I'd like you to share your tentative thesis as well as the claims you plan to use to support that thesis. This can be in any form you'd like - free write, outline, structured, unstructured.

Promt#2

I spent most of my time in computer when I am in my room, mostly either listening my favorite songs or watching a movie. I am a big fan of face book and my space, where I often go to see pictures or post a song I like. I have heard that posting a song in facebook is also illegal nowadays, but I have done that several times. I am a big fan of remix videos and music mash ups . I really like how they can create a whole different story out of those small clips.

I do remixing, I have done it in the past and I am still doing it. I have this software called Cyberlink Movie maker, which I use to make my own movies. I download the songs from Youtube, and put them on my video. Now I also download this songs for free. To download from Youtube is surprisingly free, and I have never heard that being illegal either. so I download any song that I want to use in my video and remix it .. I sometime use this bit rate to slow down the motion of the movie, and sometime I also use this trimming feature to cut the certain clips that I don't like or certain part of the song that I don't want to be in the movie. Finally I post the video on facebook and Youtube. I have got rejected many times saying that my videos are violating the copyright laws for that songs, but I still do it by using a different background music of same kind.

Prompt#2 Response

I, like most teenage students, am also involved in various online technology practices that are not literally legal. I have downloaded free music, movies, and TV shows very often, and I can’t stop doing that. Those kind of online technology practices are like caffeine in morning coffee. It seduces people. It causes people to realize how conveniently and cheaply obtain various valuable sources through Internet, making the other people who purchase legally stupid. These characteristics of online technology practices have enough power to captivate people. In addition, most people believe that there is almost no way to be caught, since there are so many people doing it same. Furthermore, there is no strict law scaring people from downloading files illegally. However, as I especially grow up, I start to think from artists’ point of view, feeling guilty of getting free files that they tried their best to create. The income from selling their works would be how they earn money, and how they live. The interesting part is that all people surely know the way they getting free files is not right. If all people admit their fault, shouldn’t they be punished?

Besides downloading free files through Internet, I also sometimes remix music. I mostly use an introduction part of songs, without lyrics. I am remixing music mainly because I only play the piano. When I produce music, I also want to put interesting beats of drum and melody of guitar or bass, even though I can’t play those instruments. Since I totally don’t know about those instruments, only thing I can do is copying the other’s work. However, since I only use few seconds of song and the purpose of my work is not making any profits, I don’t feel guilty of doing that.

Prompt #2

There are still many places around the world where people have no idea what the technology is. People might not have access to the computer, television and many other technologies. Believe me or not, I am exactly from the same place where I have seen computer first time in my life when I was 15 years old. Within three years of my life in USA I explored various online technology that I could have ever imagine. As like many other teenagers and adult Facebook has been one of my favorite and addictive social network so far. Even though I use Facebook often time I can’t spend more than 30 minutes each time I log in. I use Facebook just to know what up with my friends and family and if I have long free time I don’t mind to start chating with whomever I feel like to. Downloading music is like my habitual. I know its not a great idea to download music online illegally but what I also know is I am a student and I am poor so I might not have any other options to buy music online. If I would download music legally by paying money I would probably end of with not knowing anything about the musical world.

Honestly, I love to remix and mash-up video and making it interesting by using my own creative. I use the help of different software like iMovie, flash animation, and video editor. During my high school life I have done many remix videos. However, something I have never done was uploading it in the YouTube and sharing it in the public. Media art teacher in my high school used to say that cutting video and music and messing up with them are illegal. However, once I talked to him and I was said that he has also done some remixing and video mash-up but he has never share it with public. He has done all of this for his own entertainment and to be more creative. Likewise my media art teacher I love to do video and music editing and play around with it but I have never shared it with the public. Rarely, I show it to my friends and family. No matter if it is legal or illegal I will continue to do this because I am pretty sure that I won’t get catch unless I start sharing and updating my remixing videos in public like Girl Talk.

Prompt #2

To be honest, I am not a very tech savvy person. I only use technology for the basics- I have a Facebook to keep in touch with friends and family and to share my experiences with them. I use the Internet to research things for schoolwork and occasionally for entertainment (e.g. YouTube). However, as hard as it may be to believe, I have never tried to create a remix or mash up or tried to illegally download music, t.v. shows, or movies. I think that it is nice to watch a movie at home when you’re feeling lazy and it would certainly be better when you can do this for no charge.

However, the real reason as to why I don’t partake in downloading things illegally is mostly because I am not sure how to and I am a little too nervous to try it. I know that it is relatively simple to do and the best part is that it’s FREE! Although I have to admit that the only time I purchase music on iTunes is when I receive a gift card from someone, so essentially most of my music is free. I suppose it is hard to stop illegally downloading things once you have started, because it is just so convenient. In my opinion, I wouldn’t consider this to be a criminal offense though. It just seems like taking part in these activities has become the norm and nobody is really being hurt in the process. Sure the music artists lose a few bucks here and there, but they are still wealthier than the majority of everyday people could possibly imagine. Even though it is a form of stealing, there are so many more severe cases of theft that the government should be concerned with. Who knows, the day when I try to do things illegally I will probably never want to go back to actually buying the songs or videos.