"Why Just me?!"

So, how can we fill the gap between the new culture and old media without hurting one another?

Ted Nelson’s idea of “hypermedia” may confront the phenomenon of free file sharing; in his opinion, instead of copying digital media, we should effectively keep only one copy of each cultural expression and pay the author or a musician with an affordable amount whenever it is accessed.

In my opinion, the idea might sound good, but actually, I don’t see a practical way in which a transition from open copying to paid access would succeed. As people become accustomed to free downloads of music and movies, it takes more time to change the culture.

Also, as Lanier said, In this situation, we need some sort of universal or governmental law to support. Moreover, there should be a general acceptance of a social contract that is not easy to reach anyways. First of all, there are many people who are highly in favour of free file sharing and downloading, especially among the younger generations. Although these groups seem to understand the consequences of their act, they nonetheless refrain from changing their behavior, saying, “Why just me?” The number of people who participate in free downloading and file sharing is very vast, so no one wants to start the initiatives. Secondly, if they truly begin to understand and care about the impact of their actions upon art and the economy, and they get ready to make some schemes, how would they be able to participate in a social contract?

Another issue for the idea of “hypermedia” argues that we should first reach the point of copy-protection technology, allowing copy prohibitions to be achieved automatically. The argument makes sense to me because, when something won’t be available to use for free, there will not be any worries about its protection from free use. It would be much easier than providing a service for free, and subsequently trying to discourage people from using it without charge.

In my opinion, “hypermedia” is more like a charming work of fiction —it is far away from actually occurring. Nonetheless, the phenomena help us to seriously consider the disadvantages of new culture, which help us with more handy ideas to fulfill the best possible way to connect the new culture with old media. In another words, “hypermedia” can be considered as an initiative to lead us toward more practical methods of dealing with the new culture.

Music free downloading, who damage the most?

File sharing via the Internet plays a primary role in the destruction of the music industry. It especially affects the marginalized artists who, despite having a substantial fan base, are not widely renowned.

Recently, I’ve carefully followed the news about my favorite music artist (a Persian singer). Due to the detrimental effects of file sharing, he has been forced to obtain a second job for the sake of his survival. According to him, extensive downloads of his songs make it very difficult to endure such a competitive career in the music industry.

“I earned more money from my annual concert tours than I did from selling my albums,” he said. “True fans never download their artists’ songs for free. During my 15-year career, I`ve noticed that fans are always out there, but the search for “true fans” is a challenge.”

According to Lanier, in his book You Are Not a Gadget, there are approximately 26,000 musicians in existence. Would it be feasible for each of them to find 1,000 true fans at the very least? Even if it were possible, how long would be too long to wait for this to occur?

“The people who are perhaps the most screwed by open culture are the middle classes of intellectual and culture creation,” said Lanier.

As I mentioned in the previous blog — which discussed the journalism profession —file sharing significantly harms the music industry, as well as the profession itself. If our highest quality artists cannot survive this phenomenon, we will be left with poor-quality music. Optimistically, after a generation or two without professional musicians, a new habit may emerge, bringing good music back. However, on realistic and practical terms, as Lanier suggests, it would be better to design a handful of aggregator websites that collect and provide the music of most music artists. After all, considering the new changes to the use of the Internet, musicians should start to think about new ways to get paid.



http://totallyfuzzy.blogspot.com/

http://music-download-review.toptenreviews.com/

“A Citizen’s Gadget”

With regards to technology, some might consider the Internet to be a helpful medium for creating new job opportunities for people. According to The Technology Review, Microsoft currently employs about 135,000 employees worldwide; Google operates its business with more than 20,000 staff members internationally. Do these job opportunities necessarily help the economy’s growth? In my opinion, the new culture of technology already is and will become more destructive, rather than being beneficial to individuals. It has already harmed print and music industries and will soon damage businesses like cinemas and gaming companies.


As Lanier suggests in his book You are not a Gadget, the rapid influx of free music and video downloads has a negative influence upon the sphere of economics. Moreover, the culture of free “downloading,” regardless of the type of file, harms the value of the efforts that have been made toward their production. Therefore, the new culture not only damages certain industries, but it also discourages professionals from producing quality creations.

For instance, if a credential director cannot receive earnings equal to what he spends during the production of his movie (due to free downloads of his movie from the Internet), he would be unable to continue producing his next movie without detracting from its quality. As a result of this phenomenon, many professions are fading, and thus causing the replacement of quality creations with those that are done by ordinary people. A good example of this problem is exemplified by the battle between professional journalism and citizen journalism. As the Internet offers a multimedia environment, the phenomena of citizen journalism and blogging are growing rapidly. Nonetheless, citizen journalism is not an expert method of news reporting: the legitimacy of sources and style of news writing are very weak in citizen journalism. In other words, those who can write are not necessarily “writers.” Nonetheless, all the blogs and news articles on the Internet are damaging the value of true journalism and economically breaking the industry.

Indeed, the new culture of technology will not only have a more negative impact on economy, but it will also further influence the criteria of professional careers and businesses. Imagine living in a society that revolves around citizen journalists, citizen photographers, citizen movie makers, citizen engineers and nurses who utilize computer programming solely in their work. That day may not be too far ahead.

http://www.technologyreview.com/

http://www.purelogic.info/anti-technology.html