screencast

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsPof1WS6ao

Web Writing Assignment 2

Iwastesomuchtime.com is a social media sight where people can submit their drawings, YouTube videos, homemade videos, other user generated content, and of course cat videos to share with others as long as it gets approved by the creators of the website. Iwastesomuchtime.com is not as popular as other social media sites, such as Facebook and YouTube so they don’t have section of their website devoted to copyright laws and violations like others do. However, if the website continues to grow in popularity and size, the need for such a page will arise. 

One of my favorite videos on this site is called Twins Rock. Similar to the story of Stephanie Lenz that Lawrence Lessig mentions in Remix, this also deals with children dancing to a song, which was then in turn uploaded onto the Internet. As a twin myself, I personally enjoyed this video and watched it several times and it never once occurred to me that this could possibly be a copyright violation. I do not know if the family of these twins were sued in any way for uploading the video of them singing and dancing to Outkast’s Hey Ya, but in my opinion this is in no way a copyright violation, as I personally would not elect to download that video as way to cheat the system. The quality is simply not good enough. Nevertheless, this video has obviously received a lot of attention because it has been featured on the commercial for the game Just Dance 3. 

Aside from home videos such as Twins rock, movies and famous cartoon characters are more likely to get remixed on this websites than other types of videos, images, and text. My favorite example of this is a trailer that someone created called Harry Potter and the Brokeback Goblet. In this video the user combined clips from all the Harry Potter movies to create the plot of Brokeback Mountain. This particular video has the potential to stir up a lot of controversy and generate several lawsuits. The authors, producers, companies that created the movies, etc. could sue for copyright violation if the user did not have permission to use the content in the way that he did.  The same concept goes for an image of Mr. Potato head that someone created an was approved to be posted on the website of Mr. Potato head in a urinal with text that says “Oh great, I left it at home.” The owners of the copyright to Mr. Potato Head have the right to sue the user for portraying their character in this kind of way regardless of whether it was fair use or not. 

This leads into Lawrence Lessig’s points on reforming copyright laws. Out of the five points that he makes, simplifying copyright laws is something that needs to be done as soon as possible. Lessig makes the point that even if one was to get permission for using someone’s work it could be near impossible to track the copyright owner down. Also, he makes the point that it should be to where kids should be able to understand it. As kids also remix and create new user generated media, copyright laws should be phrased in a way that they could be able to understand it as well. In this case, simpler is better. 

The second best point he makes it that amateur creativity should be deregulated. This is important because videos such as Stephanie Lenz’s and Twins Rock should not have to worry about copyright violations as they were uploaded purely for entertainment reasons and not to create an alternate way for people to download music videos without having to pay royalties to the copyright owners.  Amateur creativity should not have to have the same rules and regulations as other videos and content on the Internet because they do not have the same intentions as others. 

The last change Lessig talks about that I agree needs to be changed is that file sharing should be not be considered a crime. Having people pay a small fee in order to be able to share files is his solution to this problem. I agree with him on this one. People are going to do it anyways, so they might as well make it legal. By telling people no they can’t do it, it is just going to make them want to do it more. 

When it comes to the future of Iwastesomuchtime.com, I believe they will continue grow and become more popular as the years go by. As far as copyright and what they do to prevent it and their stance on it, they could create a page that will address their policy on copyright and how to avoid violations of it. If they do this, their website will continue to grow without serious consequences. 

Revised Writing Assignment

http://www.appstate.edu/~taylorap1/paper.htm

Ugly Web Page

http://www.appstate.edu/~taylorap1/ugly.htm

First Web Writing Assignment

The Internet is something that I cannot imagine having to live life without. I use it just about everyday, whether it is surfing the Internet for entertainment purposes or using it for school related purposes. I do not remember exactly when I first got the Internet, but I know it was sometime around 1995. I was too young at the time to remember everything about the first time I encountered the Internet, but what I do remember is that we had dial-up. I am extremely grateful for what I now know as wi-fi (wireless Internet). Having dial-up Internet in today’s society would be a hassle. I remember dial-up as being very frustrating and you could not use the phone and the Internet at the same time.  The earliest encounter with the Internet that I can remember, was towards the end of elementary school and the beginning of middle school. I mostly used it for social purposes then, such as instant messaging (AIM) my friends and playing games. Google was also a fascination of mine at that time. I remember being enamored that one website could give you so much information about such different topics. I had to be supervised for the most part when using the Internet as a child since I was not old enough at the time to have free reign of it. Although, I did try and sneak on it at times, but those lovely parental controls prevented me from doing that. There was certainly inappropriate content on there and still is today.

Once I got to high school, I started to use it for more educational purposes. I started to get assigned research papers and projects and had to use it for that and less for entertainment reasons. I also had a brief encounter with designing and publishing websites for my internship senior year of high school.  Along with those experiences, I discovered email in high school and remember how amazed I was at how convenient it was. Email is one of the only parts of my early encounters with the Internet that I still use today. I even have it on my phone I love it so much. As far as using the Internet for educational purposes, I do not believe I would have survived high school without it. Google and other search engine sights are what I used the most throughout middle and high school when it came to getting information for research papers and other projects. I also discovered Facebook in 10^th grade, but I didn’t use it as much as I do now. That’s largely in part to most of my friends not having it as well.

When it comes to the readings that we have looked at in class, my experiences with the Internet go along more with that of Vannevar Bush. To me, the Internet was an exciting new thing that allowed me to communicate faster with others and be able to do work faster than I would if I didn’t have access to the Internet. Vannevar Bush certainly had big dreams for the way people would communicate as well as other inventors such as Leibnitz, who had a calculating machine that resembles a modern day keyboard. With inventions like theirs, we are able to use the Internet for more education purposes as opposed to the Internet being a negative, anti-social thing.

However, Nathaniel Hawthorne makes some great arguments when it comes to the negative aspects that technology can have on society. As far as the Internet being anti-social, it has the potential to do that. Younger generations that have grown up with the Internet and have never experienced not having it do not know how to interact with others the way older generations that have experienced internet less times do. This could potentially be a threat to society. It reminds of the ad campaign for the Toyota Venza where they compare older generations of being anti-social when the younger girl is sitting at home on her computer while they are out doing activities with friends. This is what society could be like should people start using the Internet more and more.

With that being said, the Internet has the ability to grant us great knowledge. This is very useful when it comes to research and other academic purposes. However, I use the Internet for entertainment purposes most of the time. YouTube, email, and Facebook are something I don’t believe I am going to be giving up any time soon. The Internet is a great invention, but needs to be used in moderation so that it will not have negative consequences on modern society. 

Hey Everyone!

Hey everyone! I'm Allison. I'm a junior creative advertising major. I'm from Columbia, SC. I have twin brother, Brett, that attends Vanderbilt University. I love the internet and I don't know how would function without it. With that being said, i'm looking forward to this class and seeing what it will be like!