51806
17 May 2006
No Comment-
This week I have decided to just totally geek out for a while. For one your comment about skype, I really see it as an advancement for mainstream telephone as you can call other internet phones for free. You can call landlines and mobile phones for a fee. That sort of pay-as-you-go attitude really is a cool idea. They actually started an experiment where a few homeowners switched from regular phone companies to skype. They just started but it looks promising.
Another idea, downloading movies will definantly hurt movie producers. I am sure that people will take advantage of downloading movies. Heck, it happens now. However, the growing use of services such as http://youtube.com is more prominent. On youtube users can upload footage from a digital recording device and make a video stream of it so that users can watch it. Although, recently some users have been misusing youtube by putting up copyrighted content. Saturday Night Live had one skit up on the site and asked to have it removed. Within a few hours of the removal however another version, made independently appeared. I use youtube and do not get me wrong it is a great resource as long as it is used wisely and not used to misconstrue some copyrighted material.
Finally, another idea is about legal music for free and creative commons. Basically, I can use a resource like http://music.podshow.com or http://garageband.com and download free music. This is because the artists want their music out there and a willing to share it openly with people that might want it. However, their work is still protected under something called creative commons. This can involve many different licenses that protect the artists work but having your work licensed under creative commons means a few things. One, people who download your work cannot redistribute it for money and two they cannot make their own mix-up of the music. However, these terms can differ under which license the artist selects. Copyright law is not an easy thing to deal with.
Have your say!