Protecting Sounds?

In order to reduce/eliminate this type of illegal activity, there are three things that the government or the music industry in general could do.

The first thing that the music industry could do is show just how the industry is being affected by these illegal downloads. There have been plenty of people to say that the music industry is harmed thanks to the illegal downloads of songs and albums, but there have been no official releases to prove this. At the least, there should be some famous spokesperson who would have actively spoken out about how their business is decreasing due to these illegal downloads.

The second thing that the government could do in order to prevent these illegal downloads from happening would be to make sure that the websites that make it possible for these downloads happen are taken down and banned from existence. The creation and maintenance of these websites just add to the positive correlation of these downloads. If these websites were taken down and charged, society would realize that there is a moral negativity to the action of taking music from those who have created it without properly paying them for their creation.

The third thing that the music industry could do is create a randomized serial number-like system on each music file. For example, when a song is purchased from Amazon Music or iTunes the song will have a prerecorded serial number which will be coded to the account and device that the song was bought on. The method would probably really hard to actually do, but if the music industry were able to create something along these lines they would be less at risk of having others share, copy or steal the music. 

Privacy-Enhanced Personalization Response

For the article that was given to us for this blog assignment, I decided to focus on the “USACM Recommendations and their Effect on Privacy-Enhanced Personalized Systems.” These recommendations were seemingly interesting to read and provided a reasonable thought process on how we as a society should approach this new topic of personalization and privacy. The USACM stated at the end of their little article box that “allowing users to verify their data seems to be only solution for assuring data accuracy.”

The spiel of information breaks the need for privacy enhanced personalization down into five categories: minimization, consent, openness, access and accuracy. I plan on focusing on what I believed to the three best principles. When it came to the minimization principles, the USACM decided to comment on how it would be best for companies to only collect, use and store information that they needed for the time that they needed.  This would prevent companies from 1. taking information that would not be needed for any non-personalization reason and 2. keeping this information for long periods of time where it might “slip” into another companies hands. Consent was mainly  stated in the fact that it is important for companies to make sure that it is ok to grab personal information from the individual before they do so. I believe that most companies do this; however, I’m unsure if there is any way to “take back” the consent you have given without removing yourself completely from the companies grasp. (The on/off option switch that was mention would be a lovely thing to have.) Lastly, the access principle that was discussed seems fairly important to today’s generation. In order for a person to feel more at ease, he/she always needs to know what information is out there for the world to see. The access principle ensures that whenever an individual feels uncomfortable or has a question about what exactly a company has access to they are able to check and then refer back to the consent principle, where they will be able to say that they do not give consent for whatever they found during the access stage.

I finish this post with the question of whether or not we will actually be able to regulate the multitude of companies that use personal information.

New Media and Technology Article

The online new article that I chose that related to the topic of “new media and technology” was titled “Apple CEO meets with Chinese official following iCloud attacks.” This article didn't offer much information because not much information was shared with the media or the public, but it did give an overall synopsis of what has happened in the past month or so.

The Apple CEO (Tim Cook) went to speak to a Chinese government official this week to speak on the matter of the hacks that happened to Apple users recently via the iCloud. In response to these hacks, Apple released a security notice for when a user’s that may be at risk of being attacked when using online services. Apple disclosed with the media that users that ignored the security notice when it popped could be at risk for having their information stolen. Although the culprit who has been hacking into Apple has not been verified, there have been suspicions that the Chinese government could be the culprit in the matter.

The group that has accused the Chinese government, Greatfire.org (who also watches Chinese Internet censorship) states in the article the specific way that the government could have pulled off this feat unnoticed, in order to gain access to individual usernames and passwords. With access to user accounts, the culprit (whether it be the Chinese government or not) also has access to things such as messages, photos, and contacts.

This article overall spoke on a new technology that has been created called “the iCloud.” This article speaks upon on of the negative sides of such a technology and how it effects our society. This technology has created a rupture in the privacy and security of personal information as well as created a tension amongst relations between two major parts of our world (Apple Company and the Chinese government). Perhaps over time we will come to understand how to make sure that no one gets attacked and has their privacy invaded, but currently this new media holds a great threat on relationships on a corporate, political and social level.

Article Link

Why We Blog - A Response

As an avid blog follower, I found a lot of the information in the article given to the class as "common sense" amongst the blogging community. The article went over many of the foundations of what people consider when it comes to blogging. when a person first sets up a blog, they look at it as they would starting a company. Why am I starting this blog? Is it for entertainment, like sharing my favorite pictures of Pug puppies? Do I want to use this as an outlet for me to speak on political subjects without as much backlash? Or is this simply something that I want to create in order to vent all these negative feelings that I tend to hold inside against myself? Although the invention of Tumblr may have taken away some of this thought process, it still exists as the first thing that individuals do when creating a new blog page.

The first thing that the article seemed to bring up (but what I believe is the second step in the process) is the use of ethics within the blog being created. Once a person has their blog setup, they seem to wonder who their audience will be and how exactly they should write about the topic they have chosen to focus their blog on. Individuals who feel like their is no need for censorship on their page will be more likely to create a personal blog page (one that portray their feelings and thoughts). For the man that created a blog in order to share his love of cats, he will probably have the most censorship (or inclination of ethics) because he will more than likely want anyone/everyone to share in the happiness that cat pictures can bring. In my own experience, I have followed a blog on Tumblr that was strictly for those who enjoy artistic nudity in paintings. The owner of that page makes certain put a disclaimer on her page in order to warn those who are anti-nudity that her page is strictly for artistic nudity and nothing else. The owner also goes out of her way to tag her paintings and photos in order to make sure that those who are trying to stay away from such materials can block her tag and not have to worry about seeing her blog on their page.

In conclusion, my opinion of this article is that it is a good starting point for those who are completely new to the idea of blogging. I like how the article made sure to go over the different sub-reasons on why a person would want to start a blog or rather why they may be starting a blog in particular. All in all, I would recommend this article to anyone who asked me what I thought of blogging because then they could come back with an idea of the basics and ask me any specific questions they may have.

Fallulah - Give Us A Little Love

A very good song. Give it a listen.