Blog 1

This week in class, I was surprised that such a profoundly relevant topic to the on going debate of intellectual property would be so close tied with digital media ethics, but it makes sense. Property in the normal sense of the word describes something that you can interact with physically, such as a book. One can hold, feel, and possess a book. When it comes to documents, e-books, online articles, and anything that is digitalized, there becomes a whole new need for ethical procedures when citing these, and borrowing bits and pieces from different scholars, and all intellectuals for that matter.

We read about the debate of downloading illegal music. There are many different viewpoints about this topic depending on who you talk to, and where you come from. This week I read in Tavanni about the changes to the Copy Right Act, and different scenarios where individuals may have violated ethical rules about intellectual property. The Napster example mentioned in the reading is probably one of the most profound examples, and talked about scenario of the whole intellectual property debate. Napster was a site with a centralized method of downloading music illegally from Napster servers. The Recording Industry Association of America sued Napster saying they were violating copyright law by sharing copyrighted material. Napster argued under the fair use doctrine that the ability to share music had limitations but was acceptable for limited sharing or use without the right holders permission. The court ruled against them, but it was a big enough case to spark more debate about the ethical way for human beings to share others intellectual property. Since this case, technology has been ahead of the law by developing decentralized methods of sharing music.

The class discussion has been the most interesting and thought provoking part of this whole intellectual property discussion. There is so many different viewpoints. I will take these into consideration next time I consider downloading music without paying for it. I am stealing from someone who took time out to make a product to sell so they can support themselves. After reading the discussion postings, I am more likely to download music, books, and movies legally.
I have found after reading the book and being really engaged with the topic, that I am talking about the debate we are having in class with my parents, and especially my college peers and classmates. I realize that ethics of digital media will only become more and more prevalent as time goes on, and I am glad to be ahead of the rest in regards to conducting myself in a professional manner in the digital media world.

Reflecting on the last four weeks have been kind of difficult. I was a little lost and bored with the topics at first, but once I engaged with the reading and texts thoroughly. I did not like how the assignments and content were hard to find on the D2L page. I could not find the assignments, and I missed two of them. I am now getting caught up. I got off to a rough start but I intend from this point on to engage in the discussions 110%.