Extended Blog Piece - Blockade of Global Progression.

We as human beings are predisposed to copying, it is how we learn. From infancy until adulthood, it is our disposition to learn by example. George Bernard Shaw, a novelist and a playwright said "Imitation is not just the sincerest form of Flattery - It's the sincerest form of learning.". An infant develops through the imitation of their parents, they are natural sponges of information, absorb through imitation of those around them. Yet, if this is the case, why is copying condemned so? Inherently, it is because people love to copy, but hate to be copied.

Thomas Edison, father of inventions and innovation is a prime example of this love / hate relationship of copying. It is well known that Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, well, he didn't. He only innovated them in a way that made the commercially viable. The idea and bulk of the work actually belongs to British Inventors Fredrick DeMoleyns, and Humphrey Davy who began working on the light bulb a good 70 years before Edison. However, I am not discrediting Thomas Edison's work, he took the unfinished product of the light bulb and innovated it into something technologically revolutionary. But at the same time, Edison was notorious for bringing up patents on his works blocking anyone from further progression of his ideas. Ironic isn't it.

Now we have to bring this predicament of copying into the modern day and on a global scale. Things have gotten a bit out of hand since Edison. Copy Right law has run rampant and has caused a rift in the progressive cycle. Now we have Samsung and Apple battling it out in court rooms about who did what first. We have people being sued thousands of dollars because they downloaded a CD. Those who refused to adhere to this ban on copying are now referred to as pirates. But instead of wielding swords and a flintlock pistols, they wield keyboards and 5 terabyte hard drives.

The Music industry, the legal iron giants of copyright fight against one thing. Pirates. Pirates who think paying $20 per album of 12 songs is ridiculous, choose to share, download copied material for free. As a majority of those anti-piracy laws come from America and are applicable to United States territory. The Internet Pirating websites are set up in countries such as Sweden where their practices are not infringing upon the law. Pirate Bay, the most notable of the piracy websites are aware of their advantage in Sweden and do not take heed of any misguided legal notices that production companies send their way. you can read their responses to these emails at http://thepiratebay.se/legal/ .

Pirates are portrayed as evil, swash-buckling thieves of the internet. Driven to steal the money from artists for their own benefits. There is no way that piracy could be justified is there? In a study conducted Go-Globe.com, Web Technologies, it was stated that 70% of those surveyed found nothing wrong with online piracy, and out of the most pirated material on the web was pornography.  If the production industries keep functioning as they do. While there is the introduction of social media, MP3. The purchasing of a physical CD has become redundant, but we still expected to pay irrational prices for media. Luckily, there are some pioneers in the music industry that will make the leap forward into a more productive consumer cycle. such as Spottify, which is free with a premium service, allows you to listen to a huge range of music for free, whilst still providing the artists with their cut.

"You're not losing sales by getting stuff out there. When I do a big talk now on these kinds of subjects and people ask "What about the sales you are losing by having stuff floating out there?" I started asking the audience to raise their hands for one question -- Do you have a favourite author? And they say yes and I say good. What I want is for everybody who discovered their favourite author by being lent a book put up your hand. Then anybody who discovered their favourite author by walking into a book story and buying a book. And it's probably about 5-10%, if that, of the people who discovered their favourite author who is the person they buy everything of and they buy the hardbacks. And they treasure the fact they've got this author. Very few of them bought the book. They were lent it. They were given it. They did not pay for it. That's how they found their favourite author. And that's really all this is; it's people lending books.".

There is something to be said when the artists who are supposedly being "stolen" from have no qualms with people copying their music, and in some cases support it. When Industry is too focused on who copied what, we lose sight of what is important to begin with. Progression, which is the main goal of any civilization, and what our future steps are towards globalization..

Ideas have always been a global resource. As Ideas are the by-product of knowledge and circumstance. It has been shown that people have had the same idea at the same time, in different locations in history. Two separate patents were filed for the Telephone on the same day. Who is to say who owns an idea.

Global progression is the true aim. We copy to learn, learn to innovate, innovate to progress.  Copying is how we learn, we copy to gain understanding, a knowledge which we adapt to create new ideas. AS we put up gates around our ideas and technologies, we as a race are unable to progress . This is, in essence why the copyright law are harmful.

Piracy and Copyright are two opposing forces, both are seen just as virtuous as each other. Copyright being the law of the land and the fair treatments of consumers. and Piracy going for the Robin Hood approach of taking from the rich and bloated producers and providing media to the poor and downtrodden of the internet. When peoples lust for wealth gets in the way of global progression of ideas, and technological power houses squabble in the court rooms instead of innovating for the benefit of their customers or even their competition. It is then when I consider Copy Right and Copyright wrong.

References:

Childs, Brian. "Neil Gaiman On Internet Piracy: "It's People Lending Books"" Comics Alliance. N.p., 10 Feb. 2011. Web. 04 Oct. 2012. <http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/02/10/neil-gaiman-piracy-lending-books/>.

Ferguson, Kirby. "All Is a Remix." All Is Remix. All Is a Remix, 2011. Web. 04 Oct. 2012. <http://www.allremix.ru/watch-the-series/>.

"George Bernard Shaw." Goodreads. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Oct. 2012. <http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5217.George_Bernard_Shaw>.

"Online Piracy in Numbers - Facts and Statistics [Infographic]." Online Piracy in Numbers - Facts and Statistics [Infographic]. Go Gulf, 1 Nov. 2011. Web. 04 Oct. 2012. <http://www.go-gulf.com/blog/online-piracy>.

"The Pirate Bay - The Galaxy's Most Resilient Bittorrent Site." The Pirate Bay - The Galaxy's Most Resilient Bittorrent Site. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Oct. 2012. <http://thepiratebay.se/legal/>.

"Uniform Motion — Release Day Economics." Uniform Motion — Release Day Economics. Uniform Motion, n.d. Web. 04 Oct. 2012. <http://uniformmotion.tumblr.com/post/9659997039/release-day-economics>.

Massively Multiplayer Online Globe

Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games(mmorpg), have become a part of our world. Most people you talk to will know or at least heard of one MMORPG, in most cases, this would be World of Warcraft (WoW) which boasts 11 million players. These games provide a persistent fantasy world where you create an avatar of yourself with a unique set of skills and abilities, and then sends you off on a adventure with thousands of other players, who you are free to communicate or fight with.

Though WoW is the most popular and well known of the MMORPG sphere, there are dozens of other MMORPG's out there. Whether they are free or subscription based, there is a huge global market for these communities, there is an estimated 75 million MMORPG players worldwide. While questing within these worlds it is easy to forget that every single person you see running around is another person behind a computer screen just like yourself.

Elizabeth Erkenbrack,  author of the 'Mediated personhood and World of Warcraft: An Ethnographic and linguistic analysis, states that "An MMORPG is a type interactive social media. Ethnographic treatment of this type of media deserves balanced consideration to ensure that it is recognized as  both cultural artifact as well as an actual site of culture and cultural formation (Hine: 2000, 2005)" . This means within globalization, not only do we have our planet to think of in terms of cultural significance, now we have dozens of other worlds.

References:

 Changyou. "The Globalization of MMORPGs - MMORPG.com Blogs."Online MMO and MMORPG Gamelist, News, Reviews and Community at MMORPG.com. Version -. -, 12 Mar. 2010. Web. 6 Sept. 2012. <http://www.mmorpg.com/blogs/changyou/032010/5872_The-Globalization-of-MMORPGs>.

Erkenbrack, Elizabeth. "a thesis in Anthropology." 'Mediated personhood and World of Warcraft: An Ethnographic and linguistic analysis -.- (2011): 6. Print.http://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1559&context=edissertations

Video Game localization

When It comes to video game culture, it comes from two geographical location. There is east and West. East meaning Japan, as their video games market is huge and innovative, and west, meaning America. You can tell where a game is from just by looking at it. You can see the cultural influences instantly

Japanese games are usually filled to the brim with color and hilarious characters, whichis considered culturally jarring to western gamers.

On the other hand, western video game aesthetics are usually brown, grey and a dreary feeling, going for a post apocalyptic setting. see (gears of wars, fall out, ect.).

How this geographic taste in games differs relates to video game localization. This is the reason we have games come out at a later date in certain areas (primarily Australia).

As a result some areas in the world will never see certain games due to localization issues.

Heather Chandler, the author of the game localization handbook in an interview with Bytelevel.com "From a technical standpoint, ant language that uses a non-western alphabet, such as japanese or hebew, presents some challenges there are issues with UI design and character displat that need to be considered when localizing games for these languages."

While game localization is an issue with avid gamers, it is something that has become less of an issue in recent times, with japanese games being released in the west a mere 3-6 months after their local releases.

References:

Chandler, Heather. "Video Game Globalization: An Interview with the Author of The Game Localization Handbook." Video Game Globalization: An Interview with the Author of The Game Localization Handbook. Http://www.bytelevel.com, 2012. Web. 06 Sept. 2012. <http://www.bytelevel.com/global/game_globalization.html>.

Images: 

http://fallout.bethsoft.com/images/downloads/wallpapers/fallout-wp7-1600x1200.jpg

http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20060607105035/egamia/images/thumb/b/bf/Katamari-box.jpg/150px-Katamari-box.jpg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwhFH75OCDs

Hackers of the World

How can we trust what we read, hear and see when one corporation owns a majority of media outlets? Rupert Murdoch and News Corporation are what we refer to as 'news', hell news  is in their name. As a hypothetical, they could publish a story which is completely false, and publish the same story in all of their news outlets and everyone would think it is true, because we as humans have a inbuilt system of "Majority Rules".

When tabloids know what we fear and what we want, they have power over us. They extort our fear for their profit. That is what was so terrifying about the News of the World phone hacking scandal back in 2011. Information is the most valuable resource in the world, people pay millions of dollars to know what type of shampoo people are using, or what telephone provider you are signed with. How valuable is the information about you on your phone. News Corporation aren't the only people who are spying on you, they were just doing it without your consent. When Face book, Google and ITunes are selling your information and tracking your every step in order to sell you items.

So where does one draw the line when it comes to privacy, just because I pressed some button at the end of the huge wall of text does that mean you have right to know everything about me? is that just as unjust as listening in on my phone calls?

References:

Chandrasekhar, Indu, Murray Wardrop, and Andy Trotman. "Phone hacking: timeline of the scandal."Telegraph UK. N.p., 15 Nov. 2012. Web. 2 Feb. 2012. <www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/phone-hacking/8634176/Phone-hacking-timeline-of-a-scandal.html>.

Blockade of Progression: Part 2

Continuing on from last time. I want to talk about humans and how we develop ideas. The way humans discover and invent things, is that we see something and adapt it. How was the wheel made? someone would have seen a log and noticed how it rolled and improved the design. Well we still do that, with everything. Now if you are noticing a trend between the start of this post and the last, and the title, here it is. Copying is how we learn, we copy to gain understanding a knowledge which we adapt to create new ideas.  As we put gates around our ideas and technologies, we as a race are unable to progress. This is why, the copyright laws are harmful.

Thomas Edison did not invent the light bulb, he just improved it. Bob Dylans first Album was cover songs. This is why we as a species need copying, we learn from it. No one can start from the ground up. It doesn't work like that.

When Industry is too focused on who copied what, we lose what is most important to begin with. Progression. which is the main goal of our civilization, and what our future steps are towards globalization.

so this is why I consider Copy right, and copyright wrong. (see what i did there?)

I urge you all to check out the most eye opening documentary by Kirby Ferguson, it is called 'Everything is a Remix'. and you can watch it for free on his website. Watch it here

Blockade of Progression part 1

this is the first of a two part blog post about the copyright law.

'Happy Birthday to you
happy birthday to you
Happy birthday dear readers
happy birthday to you'

You would be shocked if I told you that if I were to sing this song in a public space I would owe Warner Music Group $700 dollars of royalties. The song which was adapted from the original "good Morning to all" which was composed by Patty and Mildred hill in 1893 was used to greet kindergarten students in the morning. The song whilst composed in the 1900's is still considered under copy right due to the fickle nature of the copy right industry.

The music industry, the legal iron giant fights against one thing. Pirates. Pirates who think paying $20 per album of 12 songs is ridiculous, choose to share and download the copied material for free. As a majority of these anti-piracy laws come from America and are only applicable to United States land. A majority of internet pirating websites are set up in countries such as Sweden where their practices are not infringing upon the law. Pirate Bay are the most notable of the Pirating Websites, and by there name, they do not dispute this at all. You can read all the legal emails and their responses on their website http://thepiratebay.se/legal/

The music industry is too bloated to keep functioning as it does. With the introduction of social media and the MP3, buying a physical copy of a CD has become redundant, but we are still expected to pay irrational prices for Media. Luckily there have been some pioneers in a the music industry to move it forward. Spotify which is a free (with optional premium service) which allows you to listen to a huge range of music for free.

Reference:

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080506/1310251047.shtml Masnick, M.2008, Tech dirt

"We paid $700 to say happy birthday. You got to pay for the song." during an episode of her show, "Transcript of 5 Feb 2010 episode of 'The Wendy Williams Show. 5 Feb 2010. Retrieved 1 May 2011.

Definition of Globalization

#ALC215

Globalisation refers to the growing interconnectedness of different parts of the world, a process which gives rise to complex forms of interaction and interdependency. (Thompson, 1995: 149, Theorizing Media and Globalization, pg 7.)

I feel that Thompsons quote on globalisation is all too negative. The words like Interdependency shine a bad light on what globalisation could achieve on a world wide spectrum. I personally see Globalisation as a symbiotic relationship between cultures and people.

Globalisation moves past a national level of interaction and sees the combination of cultures, economies and people. It is a pull and push effect on everyone, not a dependence on one another. Dependence which Thompson uses in his definition is a word that would be seen as weak. That you can’t stand on your own two feet.

As global media consumer and a globalisation and media student, I feel that globalisation synergetic energy that is rapidly evolving idea that boomed during the times of airline travel and most importantly the internet. The internet as allowed us to communicated to nearly anyone in the world at any time, with the simple click of a button. It is a revolutionary application of communication that will inevitably bring cultures together with shared ideas. And a growing international trade of being able to buy things online.

I feel hat Thompsons definition of globalisation is too cold and misleading to what it is and can be. If I were to describe it, I would say that: Globalisation is the growing synergy across the globe, a process which would develop international symbiosis between cultures and economies. 

Extra information on the internet and globalization