Joseph Singh

Jonah Brucker Cohen

MCS

May 3, 2018

How are mashups posing a potential threat to copyright laws online?

I my opinion I feel like big names companies do the same thing. Air go, they are the root of the problem. Us as unprofessional photographers and producers, we use what ever resources are possible because we need to work with what we have. On the other hand, big name companies, the ones who produce professional content for us consumers, and they are doing the same thing. So what is the difference you may ask? The difference is we get criticized or copyright shamed because we are working with what we have . Maybe it’s because or audiences or platforms are different, what what ever the case is, we must get equal treatment.

And mashups are posing a potential threat to copyright laws online because people are using content they do not own and trying to make a profit off of it. Not only is it illegal, it isn’t fair. You shouldn’t expect to get a financial gain or level up off of someone else’s come up. On the other hand, mash ups show some signs of grit and originality because they have to canvas for material and chop it up so it can be correctly projected in their videos. With that being said, I feel like creativity isn’t a reason for someone trying to free load off of someone else. I think to shy away from copyrighting issues we should create system where you could pay it even just as to use someone’s content. I think That will destroy any issues with copyrighting if you ask me.

Mashups are an example of modern creativity in the Internet era (when it comes to video content). They can best be described as “unusual or innovative composition of content” (“Mashups: The New Breed of Web App”).

As for whether or not I believe mashups are a potential copyright issue, I am a little torn over it. On one hand, I don’t believe that it would be a copyright issue when it comes to video or news content. For music and songs, I can see it becoming a copyright issue if the mashup song becomes more popular than either of the songs used to make it. “Fair use” has a limited use and only extends so far in terms of copyrights. Remixes and mashups can be considered derivative work because it becomes the creative work born from the person who made it rather than the original artist.

Mash-ups can be a variety of things it can be like Flickr, where they can create video collages using photos and videos.  In article “Mashups : the new breed”  the author also explain that there are shopping and search mashups, like google or amazon because you can do a variety of things on those sites.  Before reading these articles I just thought that mashups were when two TV shows would come together for a episode, or when they would put together two different songs.  From the MTV article I understood that one of the first mashups was when they put together the black album and the white album to make the grey album. It brought a lot of attention to the mash up scene now on youtube you see people make mashups of their favorite hits throughout the year.

Mash Ups are an interesting thing. On one hand it is the pinnacle of online creativity, when done well, and on the other hand it is hard to distinguish copyright issues and how much credit the original should get when the mashup becomes more popular or successful.

Mashups can happen in all types fields. Applications, music, video games, blogging, photography, and much more. A mashup is a clash of information of two separate things into one thing. This could be a remix to a song or even a remix to an application’s functions. The IBM article talks about how many different uses there are for Google Maps. I find this to be cool.

Personally I welcome Mashups because they could improve upon an original idea despite that it may infringe on some copyright. I feel that if the person is using the tech or idea in a which the original creator never intended to then it should not be a problem. When I post a blog post on my personal blog I use photos and videos under the protection of fair use. I don’t use the photos to maliciously try to profit off of someone else’s hardworking but just because it helps me to prove a point or makes the post stronger. Kind of like when you include sources in an academic paper.

In music, a mashup is a new song that is mixed from the vocal and instrumental tracks from two different source songs. A mashup on the internet is pretty much the same thing. It is when take information from one website, and then you take information from another website/app, in order to make a whole new product. According to the reading Mashups: The New Breed of Web Ap”, there are different genres of mashups. There is the mapping mashups, video and photo mashups, search and shopping mashups, and news mashups. I found it interesting that mashups have their own categories.

One example of a mashup is when Brian Burton came up with the idea to blend Jay-Z’s cappella version of The Black Album for remixers with the Beatles famous The White Album and make They Grey Album. This mashup caused a lot of controversy. Brian Burton was hit with a cease-and-desist letter. The problem with mashups sometimes is that it can bring up the subject of copyright infringement.

In my opinion, mashups are cool but I feel as if it lacks creativity. Instead of taking information from several other sources, why not come up with your own data and create something completely new, that no one has ever heard of. There are a lot of pros and cons when it comes to mashups and it brings a lot of attention, some good and some bad.

Mashups occur when you pull information from one place and pull information from another place and “mash” them together to make a new product of the blended materials. A way of looking at is illustrated in the reading Mashups: The New Breed of Web Ap. The author states, “A new breed of Web-based data integration applications is sprouting up all across the Internet their popularity stems from the emphasis on interactive user participation and the monster-of which they aggregate and stich together third-party data.” (Merrill, Pg1) One good example of a mashup is the mashup called “Maps Krieg” which is a blend of Craigslist apartments listings and GoogleMaps blended together so that apartment hunters can find their dream apartments in a convenient way. This is a cool example of a mashup.

There are a lot of mashups that occur on the Internet that are cool and funny but then there are others that impose on copyright infringement.  In the reading, Grey Album Producer Danger Mouse Explains How He Did It, the author explained how the producer Danger Mouse mashed up Jay Z’s “The Black Album” and The Beatles famous “The White Album” and came up with an idea to make The Grey Album.  He stated, “Three months and a cease-and-desist letter later the album is at the center of a massive downloading debate and is the most in-demand piece of media since the Paris Hilton sex tape.” (Corey-Moss. Pg.3) So, immediately thereafter the producer received a letter to stop doing this mashup. In other words, it was illegal to do so because of the copyright infringement.

The definition of copyright is that it is a legal protection given to authors of original works, like songs, paintings and novels. Copyright owners get certain exclusive rights to their works, and can also limit others from using their works in certain cases. (Rocket Lawyer Pg. 1) Mashups wholeheartedly seem to be illegal. In the article by Rocket Lawyer, it states, “At face value, mashups appear to epitomize copyright infringement, but the situation isn’t quite so cute and dry.” (Rocket Lawyer, Pag.1) Even though most people see mashups as a form of freedom of speech and sometimes you still can get away with it is still touching on copyright infringement. I believe that it isn’t against the law and I do believe it is a freedom of speech because you are just taking two songs and mixing them up like a mix tape. Most mashup artists find ways like using P2P networks where it still falls under “fair use” but copyright problems still can occur. (Rocket Lawyer Pg.2) In any event the world of mashups is here to stay even with copyright infringement issues.

Works Cited

Mashups: The New Breed of Web Ap. An Introducton to Mashups. Duane. Merrill

Grey Album Producer Danger Mouse Explains How He Did It, Corey-Moss Pg 3

https://www.rocketlawyer.com/blog/mashups-and-sampling-whats-fair-use-97506 Pg.1

https://www.rocketlawyer.com/blog/mashups-and-sampling-whats-fair-use-97506 Pg.1

When I found out torrenting videogames was illegal, I was devastated because my guilt overcame me. Games are very expensive. 60 dollars a game. My big brother researched how to download actual games for the X box and PlayStation on our computer for free. It was fun while lasted, but as a Muslim this would be considered stealing from someone’s hard work, and that was not allowed. So I had to stop and decided to get a job instead and actually pay for video games.

According to “You will never kill piracy, and piracy will never kill you” its harmless to a degree. But I disagree. I say this because even if its minimal stealing it is still stealing. So I try to utilize the legal ways to get my entertainment by paying for Netflix and YouTube Red and I protect my conscious in the process.

To be honest, I still remember the good old days where I had my iPod and I would struggle with downloading music from ITunes because I had to purchase them. That’s when my friend told me to simply type in google download songs for free. That’s when websites like “LimeWire” and “Mp3 Skull” came up. Then it moved on to watching free movies on the go. Its easy and free, who wouldn’t want to watch a movie for free? But now we have websites like “NETFLIX” and  “HULU”, but there are still people downloading movies, which is illegal in the U.S.

According to the first article, I agree no one can kill piracy, and piracy wont kill you. Unless you get a virus and hacked. But other than that there will always be a way to find piracy. People want convenience because we have become lazy people and want things at our fingertips at a cheap price. Just like how Paul Tassi stated in the first article, “ I might take every movie in that fictional store if I was able to, but would I have spent $3 million to legally buy every single DVD? No, I’d probably have picked my two favorite movies and gone home. ” (You Will Never Kill Piracy, and Piracy Will Never Kill You”, Paul Tassi)

Joseph Singh

MCS

Jonah Brucker Cohen

April 26, 2018

How is piracy hurting the case for copyright online?

Piracy, it’s a funny concept to me. For example piracy according to google means “the unauthorized use or reproduction of another’s work.” So when big named companies or YouTube for example uses out UGC and makes money off of it, isn’t that the same idea. I feel like we as a society of unprofessional superstars don’t get our recognition and money’s worth because of this.

With that being said I’d like to start off by saying piracy is already illegal in the United States, yet it still persist. Why is that? Maybe the penalty of piracy isn’t stern enough or maybe it is hard to catch the culprits, but it is a fact that this must be stopped.

On the other hand, I admit piracy may be a quick buck, and easy to do, but it is wrong. Imagine putting millions of dollars and Time and brain storming. After all that you release you content with the intentions of making money? You would be angry if someone was to make a profit out of your content with out your consent.

Now touching on the privacy aspect of the situation. Privacy in our day and age is hard to come by because how non private this generation is. when it comes to privacy and piracy, they don’t go hand in hand but they are related. I guess what I’m trying to say is with piracy comes an invasion of your privacy.

I can say the big Take away is that to combat piracy we must disipline the people who do this and with that being done privacy will finally fall back in its place and everything will be better. Make America Great Agian !

Before reading these articles I have never heard of piracy. Piracy is “The unauthorized use or reproduction of another work.” I never realized how big piracy is. I know people always stream movies, but I guess I never realized how much money some of these people are actually losing due to piracy. Now it is just so easy for anyone to just download any movie they want to. Although I am one of those people that actually still like to go to the movies instead of streaming everything, I do see why people do it. Like they say in the article “You Will Never Kill Piracy, and Piracy will Never Kill You” movie tickets keep going up. “They have failed to realize that people want things to be easy. Physically going to the movies is hard enough without paying way too much for the privilege.’ Although the pirate bay website where people were able to easily download copyrighted material has shutdown, I still think there will still be piracy problems. It seems as though these hackers will always find a way.