The Times They Are A changin’

It’s so interesting to see how things have changed, even over the last few years. Mobile phones used to be, “Bricks,” which used to make phone calls, send texts, and allow the user to play “Snake.” Nowadays it is incredible how far they have come, what with the I-Phone and all of its mighty applications: some people even made a way to drive a car with one! (I still wonder how it gets away with not having a flash for the camera though).

Something I have on my phone which I have developed an interest in, especially because of the Media Methodologies unit, is RSS feeds. These basically link to a server and download small bits of information when told. For example, I have a feed which links to the BBC’s news feed, and every now and again when I refresh it, it accesses the site and downloads the latest news. It really is information at your fingertips! I also have a link to Al Jazeera’s news feed as well, as I have been told that their information has less of a ‘spin’ on it and I am interested in comparing the two and deciding for myself.
It will be interesting to see where things go in the future, who knows; maybe we will get to ‘step inside’ films (a bit of an advancement from wearing 3D glasses). But either way, things still seem to be moving forward at an alarming rate!

China

I used to work in a Chinese takeaway. Yea sometimes people stereotype oriental people as being really, really hard working, and I’m sure not all of them are, but in my experience so far, I have found this to be true. One girl I spoke to who I met recently in London told me the hours she had to do in high school, and I was shocked.
Currently there is a big dispute taking place which might cause Google to withdraw from China, due to its censorship rules, the government wanting to filter information that people are allowed access to.
It is slightly concerning when such a company who have brought about such catchphrases as “Lets Google it,” (maybe Googling one day becoming a word in its own right), decide to take such drastic action. The Android phones are also Google powered, and what with China being the world’s largest mobile phone market, this is going to cause interesting situations for the various businesses.
Hopefully this won’t escalate into anything undesirable.

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File sharing

It is something that I'm sure most of us have done, from sending someone a song over Bluetooth, to downloading high end editing software which costs thousands of pounds.
Either way, various industries see it as a massive threat, with a potential for closing down entire sectors of the media industry. I mean if everyone just downloaded for free all the music they ever wanted, that would be the loss of the primary source of income for the music industry.
Fair enough.

On the other hand, when you look at the lifestyles of certain famous musicians, for example Amy Winehouse with her coke-riddled bird’s nest which enables her to snort on stage; Californian rock stars with their 18 cars and 5 different mansions, who moan that they don’t have enough, it gets to the point where you feel like you might actually be doing them a favor by cutting their pay through pirated music. It is actually quite terrifying to think how much richer California would be if everyone did everything ‘legally.’ The film Avatar cost 300,000,000 to create, and apparently it was made back after two weeks of being in the cinema; think how much more profit it will make when it is out on DVD.

One ironic thing I think is that a lot of people who work for big software companies like Adobe or Microsoft, probably learnt their various skills on 'illegally' downloaded software when they were younger. The thing is, huge companies like these, expect students to dish out hundreds of pounds in order to purchase their products, and in reality, it is hard enough financially being a student anyway. Last year, I was quite impressed when I found out that Microsoft was giving away free copies of Visual Studio 2008 to students, and quickly snapped up this offer. Windows also recently sold copies of Windows 7 and Office 2008 for affordable prices for students, when they do things like this you don’t feel quite as bad about actually buying them.

On a lot of DVDs it says no unauthorized lending, does this mean that technically it is illegal to lend a film to someone and that if you wanted to do everything 'properly' you should get written permission? That is a bit OTT in my opinion. And if that is the case, then why wouldn’t copying a film for someone who didn’t intend on keeping it be any different.

I was also recently told that when you upload pictures onto Facebook, Facebook then owns the rights for them… does that mean I am technically breaking the law using my photos if they are on Facebook...

I personally think the whole system is a bit stupid.

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