Confessions of a Copyright Criminal

Keeping in theme with this week's readings regarding copyright I did a little YouTube surfing for inspiration.  Hence this week's blog post is a visual one defining and questioning the validity of copyright.  Irony of irony this post, at least in part, likely violates copyright - at least according to the criteria put forth by Brad Templeton.  Oh well, I've always been a bit of a rebel.

An explanation of copyright set to a catchy tune.



This Dilbert cartoon is actually a parody of Garfield. So it falls within the bounds of fair use and thus is not a violation of copyright. Ironically my posting of it probably doesn't fall within those boundaries.




Ok, I've gone legit with this one.  Here's Michael Moore's take on copyright law.  I am interpreting Moore's s statements in the clip as permission to repost his thoughts on copyright...by posting the clip.  A very literal interpretation indeed, however it does meet Templeton's criteria.  It was fun being a criminal...if only for a few minutes.

Meka.0

The preceding viral video was a parody of the Tosh.0 cable show on Comedy Central which parodies viral videos on YouTube. Basically it's a parody of a parody. Yes, I've gone meta.  This weeks readings have us examining the phenomenon that is viral video.  Such examination also got me thinking about the cottage industry that has sprung up around viral video.  I find it fascinating, perhaps a lot like Wesley actually, that viral video has effectively jumped mediums.  Think about it. An entire TV show devoted to videos that can't be watched on TV...well at least not until rather recent technological advances anyway.

What are the implications for authorship with all of this medium jumping afoot. (Pun intented.)  I've watched the Tosh.0 show a few times and I confess I often find it wildly funny... and just as often wildly offensive.  Though I'm not presently aware of any significant backlash from the stars of the videos being parodied I often wonder how they feel about their sudden, if dubious, second layer of fame.  Particularly as Comedy Central is profiting from their "work" while they aren't. Is authorship an outdated construct in the realm of viral video? Hmm. What about the videos in which the star is clearly unaware that they were being recorded? Or where the video was uploaded without the star's knowledge?  Who is the author in that case...the person who filmed the video, the person who uploaded it, or the person in it? Or Daniel Tosh? Or does it even matter?  Weighty questions indeed.

Furthermore, when said video is then taken out of it's context and lampooned before the world, why in the world would anyone even want to claim authorship? Well, anyone except for Daniel Tosh, that is.  I've more than once wondered at the people who appear in those "Web Redemption" segments. Somehow they never actually succeed at "redeeming" themselves but always manage to look like a bigger...well, you get the idea.  I suppose there is some comfort afforded in officially being in on the joke but personally I'd sooner avoid being the joke in the first place. But, apparently, that's just me.

The Evolution of the Blog

Audience, structure and authority in the weblog community

Weblogs: A History and Perspective

Blogging, The Final Frontier...Maybe

This week's readings are concerned with practices and implications of blogging.  In the span of about a decade blogging has grown into a respected form of self publishing, with enough credibility to challenge stalwart traditional news organizations for the attention of readers.  Just what does all this personal, push button publishing mean for the future of media? The answer to that, I suppose, requires a little review of recent history.

Blogging expert Rebecca Blood identifies the first generation of blogs, or weblogs as they were known then, popping up around 1998. Text heavy, link laden web pages hand coded by web enthusiasts typified this early generation of blogs and spoke to the unique interests of their author/coders.  With the release of push button publishing tools like Blogger in 1999 blogging exploded and became a bona fide phenomenon.  Next up: a redefining of "media" to include public participation.

It is this new definition of media that I find most fascinating.  As a stalwart industry, literally monopolized in the hands of a privileged few for generations, media though one of the very cornerstones of democracy was not a democratic institution.  Irony of ironies.  I find it remarkable that blogging has risen to such prominence so quickly as to change the very paradigm of publishing- and to such extent that traditional publishers are often striving to look and feel more like blogs.  Though with such an overwhelming surge in popularity it could be argued that a shift in modus operendi was inevitable.  Still, the shift represents quite a feat.

So what's next on the horizon for this new form of publication?  I'm going to venture out on a limb (a little bit anyway) and predict video blogging, or vlogging. With the ever dropping price of quality production equipment, and growing knowledge of SEO principles (You do know how dramatically video can effect search engine rankings, right?), as well as the fact that YouTube is actually currently the largest search engine on the web, I predict the next generation of self publishing authors will actually be auteurs. Interestingly, such a shift may actually necessitate another redefining of media and indeed of blogging.  And the democratization of media marches on.