Here is an audio podcast I recorded of a paper I wrote in my writing class.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
DMCA
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act which was enacted in 1998 to help prevent internet piracy and to promote competition among industry leaders has had unforeseen and far reaching consequences.
The "anti-circumvention" part ( section 1201) of the DMCA's was to prevent internet piracy from bypassing DRM and other copyright protection. However in reality the section 1201 of the DMCA has done little to nothing in reducing internet privacy and has prevented many legitimate practices. People who buy digital content are not allowed to break any kind of protection, even to make backups for their own personal use and they aren't allowed to transfer their content to different mediums. For example, ripping a CD and then transferring it to an iPod is technically illegal according to the DMCA. On a corporate scale the DMCA has allowed companies to prevent competitors from selling after market products effectively crushing competitiveness and letting the original manufacture control the pricing without having to worry about being undersold. Not only has section 1201 limited what people are allowed to do with digital content they purchase, but also it has been used in ways it was never intended.
I believe that the DMCA at it's core is a very good idea but is long since obsolete and has been taken advantage of. It was written over 12 years ago, and since then we have had entirely new technology explode onto the scene. I think that the existing DMCA should be thrown out and an entirely new one be written taking into account the flaws of it's predecessor and how rapidly the technology sector changes. Guidelines need to be set for when the laws apply and can be used. For example we need to specify who this law applies too, should it really apply to the working mother who simply wants to listen to some soothing music on her way to work but doesn't want to pay again when she already has an entire collection of Beatles albums? Or should it really apply to companies simply trying to make a profit by charging less money for an an equally good product? As it is written today the DMCA is very static, we need people to write dynamic laws that will continue to work for years to come.
The "anti-circumvention" part ( section 1201) of the DMCA's was to prevent internet piracy from bypassing DRM and other copyright protection. However in reality the section 1201 of the DMCA has done little to nothing in reducing internet privacy and has prevented many legitimate practices. People who buy digital content are not allowed to break any kind of protection, even to make backups for their own personal use and they aren't allowed to transfer their content to different mediums. For example, ripping a CD and then transferring it to an iPod is technically illegal according to the DMCA. On a corporate scale the DMCA has allowed companies to prevent competitors from selling after market products effectively crushing competitiveness and letting the original manufacture control the pricing without having to worry about being undersold. Not only has section 1201 limited what people are allowed to do with digital content they purchase, but also it has been used in ways it was never intended.
I believe that the DMCA at it's core is a very good idea but is long since obsolete and has been taken advantage of. It was written over 12 years ago, and since then we have had entirely new technology explode onto the scene. I think that the existing DMCA should be thrown out and an entirely new one be written taking into account the flaws of it's predecessor and how rapidly the technology sector changes. Guidelines need to be set for when the laws apply and can be used. For example we need to specify who this law applies too, should it really apply to the working mother who simply wants to listen to some soothing music on her way to work but doesn't want to pay again when she already has an entire collection of Beatles albums? Or should it really apply to companies simply trying to make a profit by charging less money for an an equally good product? As it is written today the DMCA is very static, we need people to write dynamic laws that will continue to work for years to come.
Video mashup ~ All Blacks Rugby Tries
Here are some amazing tries scored over the years with several different audio clips mixed in.
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Answering questions with Google and WolframAlpha
1. All english words containing the letters "eue"
Answer: feued
queue
queued
queueing
queuer
queuers
queues
Search: Google
Query: english words containing the letters "eue"
2.How much potassium in 4.7 oz of banana?
Answer: 477mg
Search: WolframAlpha
Query: How much potassium in 4.7 oz of banana?
3. How old was Barack Obama on the day you were born?
Answer: 30 years, 10 months, and 27 days
Search: WolframAlpha
Query: How old was Barack Obama on july 1st, 1992?
4. Date and time of the next total solar eclipse in Eugene?
Answer: Sunday, May 20, 2012 4:52pm
Search: WolframAlpha
Query: Solar eclipse in Eugene?
5. What is the minimum and maximum price of google stock since it went public?
Answer: Low: $100.01, High: $741.79
Search: WolframAlpha
Query: google stock price history
6. Link an image of the barcode for UPC 01234567890
Answer: UPC image link
Query: UPC 01234567890
7. How many vertices does an icosahedron have?
Answer: 12
Search: Pretty much a tie, but WolframAlpha was a bit faster
Query: vertices in an icosahedron?
8. Distance from Eugene to Tokyo?
Answer: 4,886 miles
Search: WolframAlpha
Query: Distance from Eugene to Tokyo?
9. Average Oregon income per capita?
Answer: For 2008; $35,956
Search: Google
Query: Average Oregon income per capita?
10. What is the Morse code for your first name?
Answer: .---|---|...|.... J|O|S|H
Search: WolframAlpha
Query: morse code Josh
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Differences in search result
1. uss yorktown nt
It appears that the results are very similar among the four search engines, containing many of the same links.
2. google china censorship
It appears that the results are very similar among the four search engines, containing many of the same links.
2. google china censorship
For google.com and bing.com the results seemed very similar, with headlines about Google rethinking their position in China, but also many sites talking about what kind of censoring they are doing to be in compliance with Chinese law. The two Chinese search engines only contained results about Google possibly pulling out of China.
3. Tiananmen Square
google.com and bing.com once again had very similar results, there were a lot of websites talking about the Tiananmen Square. google.cn had information about the Square such as it's history and where it is but no mention of the massacre or protests. baidu.com had articles about events or news pieces that took place there but once again no mention of the massacre or protests.
4. Taiwan independence
google.com and bing.com had the history and current status of the Taiwan independence movement while google.cn and baidu.com contained articles about the movement failing, that the US was not going to get involved, and a lot of negative articles about the future of the movement.
Time life photos
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)