Thursday, July 27, 2017

~ Week 5 ~

TOPIC 1 : FIRST AMENDMENT, COPYRIGHT & FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION
  1. The Mouse Liberation Front. A terrorist group enlisting cartoonists to draw their own Mickey. The leader, O'Niel was taken to the Supreme Court. So interesting to me! So many people took the original Mickey Mouse and turned him into many other things, such as drug-dealing Mickey, which Disney quickly sued that company for. Other Mickey's included CIA Mickey and Steamboat Willy. Another shocking thing mentioned in the video was that Disney lashed out at a daycare in Florida for having images of Disney characters on their wall. This was after Walt had left and Disney became very protective over their stuff and made sure to find anyone who may have been using it. This shocks me how insane Disney became after Walt. He built the company for one reason and I feel like the next owners messed with that image by suing everyone they could. I think that the freedom of expression factor should cover using Disney characters for decoration, especially at a children's place. I think in my past Elementary school days, Disney characters were displayed everywhere and I never heard an issue with that. The children all know and love the characters, why is it so bad to display them without Disney's approval? Just for a sticker? Seems a bit out of control if you ask me!
  2. I do not think I often come into a situation where I wonder if I am doing something illegal with copyright, but a few times I have had to think twice about it. In middle school, I made videos with my friends and put them on YouTube, all which included music. I notice that people often comment something along the lines of "I do not own this song" or "I mean no copyright", so I thought I'd comment something along those lines. Yet, my video was declined multiple times from being uploaded due to copyright issues. How would I properly post a video using someone else's music? Same idea with pictures being used in different projects and papers of mine. When I search a word into Google and click Images, am I doing anything illegal by using those pictures? If I add the link or citation from it underneath the photo, does that make it legal and right?
  3. I often see musicians/artists and famous people in general go too far in exercising their freedom of speech. They do this by many different ways, but social media is an often place of arguments. I have seen many times where a musician tweets something that causes a huge backlash on themselves simply because they were sharing their opinion, just a bit too harshly. I think many people share their opinions strongly behind a screen just because they have the freedom to do so, although it may not be the best thing to state out loud, especially when you're famous and observed by millions of fans daily.
  4. My opinion of these incidents is just anger that someone is that immature to take their freedom and use it in an inappropriate way. Everyone deserves to share their opinion, it should just be in a calm, orderly manner, not in a way that will start a fight. I think their should be more regulations on what people can post/say on social media. Although some things can be reported, too many posts are not taken down by the company which allows it to cause unnecessary controversy. 

TOPIC 2 : WIKILEAKS

  1. WikiLeaks actions are good and bad depending on who you ask. I feel two different ways on this topic. I think that some people (including the ones being exposed - government/military), along with one side of me, thinks that it is an invasion of confidential documents that we should not be able to see. There are so many things that the government/military hide from us, but in some ways, it's for the best. If everyone knew what was really going on, there could be riots, panics, and many other awful reactions leading to way bigger issues. On the other hand, I think that it enlightens us on what's going on behind our backs everyday. Because the government/military is so secretive, it may scare some people because they want to know what's truly going on with America. 
  2. I feel that way because I think it's important to allow the people of the States access to what's going on behind the scenes because it's our right as an American citizen to understand the secrets of our nation. I think that could also be very dangerous to give people access to the confidential stuff because they would panic knowing all of the things that's happening. Knowledge can be a good or a bad thing, but in this situation, if I had to choose one, I say that WikiLeaks is bad and I feel that way because it is opening American's eyes to things we should never have to see, especially younger children and teens who have access to the internet. If it's already happening, our knowledge of it would only cause uproar and panic amongst the nation. 
  3. For example, my point of view could be supported by the event when WikiLeaks shared the video in Iraq of people being shot. Citizens seeing this video caused an uproar of the U.S. Military. The U.S. Military used a law within the Rules of Engagement to make it an acceptable action. The military got so much backlash from this video though, how is that helpful to us as citizens? Maybe they made a few bad actions, but we are a safe, free country because of our military. I personally feel that WikiLeaks is trying to ruin the image of the military which is sad because of all they have done risking their lives for our freedom.
  4. The current state of free speech, access to information/internet or freedom of expression/creativity is overall at a stand still. I think that we have the internet, which gives us an access to more information we could ever read in a lifetime. Although it may be used for good and bad, at the end of the day, it is very useful and I think that's just fine. Freedom of expression is very important to me because I think everyone should have a chance to share their opinion. What makes me so frustrated is people skewing the definition of freedom of creativity or expression. Having the freedom to do almost anything could be good to share one's opinion and maybe influence others, but when someone uses their "freedom" to bully people and hate on a topic or subject and outwardly show it, that's when it could get dangerous. Overall, I think that everything we have access and freedom to is a good thing, some just decide to use it for negative uses. I think there maybe should be more laws or regulation against how much freedom we should get on the internet to control those who take advantage of their freedom.
  5. For example, in my High School, social media was a huge thing. Of course it was, we were teenagers. The internet helped me through school with research and studying of all courses. Social media kept me up to date with my friends and connected with them. All good with those factors. Then, there was this "popular" group of kids, which really meant they were all rude, but seemed cool, so people worshipped them. Everyday they would tweet or post some new horrific thing talking badly and down on others. They were true bullies who took advantage of their freedom of expression and that's just sad.

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