Copyright Law and Shepard Fairey

Wow - I can't believe how ridiculous the whole copyright argument is between AP and Shepard Fairey.  If I were a judge in the courts I would throw out AP's argument as being completely frivolous.  Honestly, one of their people took a picture.  Do they own the face in the picture just because they photographed it?  I would think President Obama should be paid lots of money by literally everyone that has ever taken a picture of him over the years and used it in any way.  My feeling is that anyone putting anything on the internet should make it exceedingly clear if their item is not to be used without pay.  If they fail to do so, then it's fair game / fair use without question.  The courts should not be wasting taxpayer money on cases like this.  Creative Commons would have no doubt made a difference in this case, but AP is using a large safety net that "everything" they touch is protected.  Very self-serving.  I like the part in the article Lisa provided (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29023218/) that said the Obama campaign thanked Mr. Fairey for using his talent in support of his campaign.  That statement alone should close the matter.  Mr. Obama was ok with the use of his face in that poster.  Nothing more needs to be said. 

I tried the "thermal" effect in Blibs on a picture of me and Ben Franklin (will I get contacted by Ben's attorneys for using his image????).  Love that site!  Fun!

Digital Art

Wow - there are so many artistic people out there (I'm not one of them).  I was amazed at the creativity in using the different apps for cell phones, etc.  The one I found very fascinating was the BrushesApp for iphones, the ipod touch, and the ipad.  A person literally uses their finger to draw on the screen.  Imagine carrying around something that fits in your pocket and being able to start drawing wherever you are.  A lot less messy I would think, than the real thing!  And way more spontaneous.  I am also amazed by the great pictures that can be taken with a phone.  How many times in the past (before cell phones if you can imagine it!) have I wished I had a camera to capture something that I would not see again?  For most of us, it's not about the picture quality as it is about catching that perfect moment.  Cell phones are great for that.  In an article titled Is The Cell Phone The New Polaroid written by Alan Murbayashi, he tells us that cell phones outnumber cameras by a huge margin.  It has made it great for "citizen journalists."  No doubt that's why we can view pictures of so many current events that were not available to us years ago.  And we no longer have to carry a large camera around our necks!  I can't help but wonder what's next with technology.

Creative Commons

I like the idea of Creative Commons.  It allows a creator to say what protections they want for their creation using a tool that appears to be fairly easy to work with.  I think that anyone posting a creation on the internet should have to sign up for a copyright license in a central place so that anyone wanting to use the creation can easily look up what the restrictions are.  However, if a creator fails to sign up within a preset time frame, it should mean the sky's the limit.  As I've said before, I think whole copyrighting/patenting thing is out of control.  A good example of this is the Monsanto Company.  I found an article about them in one of Kevin Kelly's news sites (a Bernie Sanders newsroom article no less:  http://sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=c255ae23-f41a-470d-8460-a65d65df6f58)  Monsanto actually sued a neighboring farmer when they tested some of the plants in his fields and found one of them was grown from a Monsanto seed.  Monsanto's seeds are genetically-engineered, while the farmer was organic.  He had no intention of using a Monsanto seed and had no idea one had blown in and was growing in his field.  The system needs an overhaul to prevent frivolous court cases like this.

Next 5000 Days for WWW - Kevin Kelly's Talk

Kevin Kelly's ideas certainly made me think.  It really is amazing what the web has done to change our lives, and he's right, we aren't as amazed as we ought to be.  A few things he said jumped out at me.  One was that the number of clicks and links out there are so large as to be meaningless.  The "stuff" out there becomes one large mass, sort of like a brain that is full of information.  That was a fascinating way to think about the web.  I was concerned to hear that our use of technology accounts for over 5% of global electricity.  As none of this technology is going to go away, but rather it will grow, we really need to think about how to let it all grow "green."  I liked his thought where he stated that WE are the web - we really are when you think about it, aren't we?  He said that the next "Web 3.0" will probably be something much smarter than what we have now....more anticipatory and personalized.  This rang true; I think we can all feel it coming.  He called the price we would pay for this next level "transparency."  To me, that's a nice way of saying we'd have to give up our privacy.  It makes me wonder if we'll all get chips in our heads and be connected to the web that way.  Scary - they are already doing this with our pets!  Are we next?

Cloud Presence 2-3-11

My cloud presence is actually very heavy at work, but not so much in my personal life.  At work, nearly everything I do is saved to a server "out there" somewhere, but also in a very protected area set by my employer.  I recently created a "sharepoint" site for the program that I am responsible for.  A sharepoint site is basically a place on the web to which I give people permissions to enter.  It holds information such as research items, work tools, shared documents, etc. that everyone can use and share.  I am responsible for its maintenance and its content. 

Five years ago, my employer wasn't nearly as cloud-oriented as it is now.  We were still filling out paper forms to apply for jobs, do our time sheets, make benefits changes, and for many internal communications.  It's been amazing how the technological changes have increased our productivity and improved our record-keeping ability!  But there is still much to do to get all divisions within my agency to be able to share data.

One of the improvements that is coming will take care of trying to juggle all of the passwords I have for each of the systems I use.  They've already provided us with a badge that will hold a password assigned to each particular employee in preparation of having just one password for all the systems.  I can't wait for that new feature to be in place!