Blog#2 Intellectual Property

According to lecture four notes from COM 3413, intellectual property is protect by copyright laws whose purpose is to create a delicate balance between the rights of creators of intellectual property and the rights of consumers.  The topic of intellectual property is interesting to me because, with new technological innovations, the need for tangible products, such as CDs, books made of paper, and handwritten letters, are becoming obsolete and this is causing issues with our current copy right laws.  I fear that with tangible products being replaced by digital products, copyright laws may change to favor more strongly the creators of digital intellectual property and leave the consumer out in the cold.  There is a trend in the United States for copyright laws to favor monopolies and this trend is being augmented by “oligopolistic” disposition of the United States’ cultural industries (Grimes 2006, p. 971).  According to Grimes in her article, the digital and intellectual properties of our current century are very different from the “plots of land and printed texts” that our copy right laws were originally intended to safe guard (Grimes 2006, p. 972).   According to lecture four from COM 3413, many corporations feel that a great deal of money is on the line due to intellectual property falling into the public domain and the first sale rule, which allows the purchaser of a product, such as a DVD, to resell or give away the product without the producers consent.  These producers are lobbying to shift copyright laws to favor the creators over the consumers.  Many producers of intellectual property have tried to safeguard their profits from those individuals who wish to avoid paying to own that intellectual property.  According to class lecture three, in 2011 the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), which was designed to stop illegal downloads by allowing internet companies to ban certain sites that allowed illegal downloads, was debated in the House of Representatives.  However, the balance between protecting intellectual property and net neutrality has been delayed.  According to the text, public outcry over SOPA and the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA) stopped Congress from voting on the two acts and delayed a solution that might balance protecting the rights of consumers and producers.   Though the public’s outcry over these acts halted a decision, this does not mean that future legal acts favoring the creators of intellectual property will not arise.  Corporations owning  intellectual property that are their cash cows will do whatever it takes to ensure that their properties continue to generate money, even if it is at the consumers’ expense. 

Reference

Grimes, M. Sara. 2006.  Online multiplayer games: a virtual space for intellectual property debates?.  New Media and Society,  971, 972. 

Communication Technologies-Com 2733

According to the class lecture four from Writing for New Media class, some video game makers are pushing to make all games exclusively downloadable.  This topic interests me and should be interesting to you, because this push to eliminate the availability of physical products is a threat to our rights as consumers.  The difference between purchase and ownership of digital products and physical products is that physical products cannot be taken away by the product’s creator.  Digital products and digital rentals are not protected by the First Sale Rule, which protects the consumers’ ownership of a product purchased.  We need to be wary of changing copyright laws that favor the creator over the consumer.  If the trend to get rid of physical products becomes a norm then our games, songs, and other media will not belong to us and can be taken away without our consent.  

My Favorite Website

My favorite website is Yahoo.com.  It is my favorite website because it William's C.R.A.P.  Information such as news, technology, and finance are placed in proximity to their related fields.  Yahoo.com also follows William's C.R.A.P. through repetition, yahoo.com using the same font for the bodies of summaries of information throughout its page.  The alignment on Yahoo.com homepage allows viewers to easly find information.  I believe Yahoo.com uses proportion correctly in its webpage, through the pictures Yahoo.com uses to showcase new stories and etc.  Yahoo.com uses Light and Shadow efficiently in its webpage.  Images on Yahoo's webpage have few shadows and it is easy  to tell what is going on in those images.  Yahoo.com also uses perspective efficiently too.  Images of location and/or buildings showcase the areas around that compliment the main theme of the images. 

http://www.yahoo.com/ 

How I made my blog look better.

When changing my blog I kept in mind the four design aspects.  I changed the color of the main background of my blog to a brighter white to add to contrast between the text and the background.  I also changed the header background from a gold color to an orange-red color.  I made this change so the the header text stood out more and was easier to see.

I changed the blog title and post title from Times New Roman to Georgia.  I did this so I would be repeating the same font for the titles in my blog.  I changed the page text to Times New Roman to contrast from the the font of the titles on my post.

I left the alignment of my blog alone.  I did this because I felt that the alignment was perfect the way it was.  The alignment followed the rule of three, which is attractive to the humane eye.

I left the proximity of the blog alone.  I did this because I felt that everything was at a prefect distance.  

Why I want a degree from UTSA?

I want a degree from UTSA for a number of reasons.  One reason is that UTSA offers degrees in the communication field, which is my major.  I have heard good things about the UTSA campus and the resources UTSA has available for its students.  UTSA is located in Texas, which allows me to go to school and be close to my family.  UTSA has a good reputation.  A degree from UTSA should help me in my career goals.