My Journey

Sources: http://findingtheinnergoddess.blogspot.com

Throughout these few weeks of blogging, indeed, i have gained a great array of insights. Firstly, for all my blog materials, i have included sources to support my arguements and to locate readers on where i obtained my information. This enables to increase the credibility of my blog (Clark 2013). Besides that, carefully choosing appropriate images are important as not to offend any readers of my blog and must be suitable to the context.

In terms of the blog design, i have incorporated Jakob Nielsen's theory of usability. Biography of myself, blog tags, links for further references, blog archive, and hyperlinks to ensure my readers enjoy the stay in my blog.

Besides that, being a blogger is not writing what is in our mind and blurt it out. It does takes account on some criteria that i need while blogging. In whatever we do, ethic is a must, same goes to blogging. We must be an ethical blogger. According to Radio Television Digital News Association 2013, Basic ethics are

•    Truth and Fairness

•    Accountability and Transparency

•    Image and Reputation

Lastly, through writing this blog, so many readings and issues that i have read as well as many researches on articles and journals that i have done to support my idea. This is an exposure for me as i am a person who does not expose to current news and what is happening in this world. Hence, it makes me aware on the current issues in the world. Thank you for the opportunity given.


References


Clark, B 2013, 22 Ways to Create Compelling Content When You Don’t Have a Clue, viewed 6^th June 2013, <http://www.copyblogger.com/create-content-infographic/>


Radio, Television, Digital News Association 2013, Guidelines for Social Media and Blogging, RTDNA, viewed 5th June 2013, <http://www.rtdna.org/content/social_media_and_blogging>

Who Really Owns Your Photos in Social Media?

Source: Mediashift.com

Morel is  a former AP photographer, who was in Haiti during earthquake in January, 2010. In less than two hours, Live images of the destruction from the earthquake were posted on his Twitpic account. The photographs on the account were taken and re-tweeted under another user name in Twitter. AFP took and save those photographs and distributed them under the false credit through its own image service and Getty. They have continued doing it although they knew that the photographs were belong to Morel, and no permission was approved. (Walker 2012). Therefore, Morel engaged The Hoffman Law Firm to send Cease and desist letters to both AFP, their distributor as well as the two companies' clients and subscribers after he realised his work was being distributed without permission (Nicholl 2010).


AFP argued that twitter allowed it to distribute the photos without permission and distribute them through Getty images. Meanwhile, twitter TOS provides users to hold their rights to the content that they published. 

In my opinion, as a credible magazine company, they should find out who is the owner of the picture instead of making conclusion that the picture they found belongs to the owner as stealing pictures and credit are common in internet. Meanwhile, Morel should have included his name on the picture as a credit and this will reduce the problem of stealing credits. Besides that, i think Morel should sue Suraero as he was the one who stole his pictures and credits. 

After his issue, many infuential twitter users started to boycott. Sean Garrett (@sg), part of the Twitter communications team tweeted that “you own your tweets and photos will be part of your tweets,” to a user concerned about ownership (media bistro).


Hence, the photos available online should be belong to the original owner and to use the photos, permission should be granted. Stealing other people's pictures are like stealing people's ideas as known as plagiarizing (Bailey 2013).

References

Bailey, J 2013, The Challenge Faced By Photographers, Plagirism Today, viewed 2nd June 2013, <http://www.plagiarismtoday.com/2013/01/16/the-challenge-faced-by-photographers/>

Nicholl, J 2010, We Stole Your Pictures, Now We're Going to Sue You, The Russians Photos Blog, viewed 2nd June 2013, <http://www.jeremynicholl.com/blog/2010/05/03/afp-steal-photos-then-sue-photographer-2/>

Walker, D 2012, Morel Releases More Evidence Against AFP, Getty in Copyright Case, PonPulse, viewed 2nd June 2012, <http://pdnpulse.com/2012/05/morel-releases-more-evidence-against-afp-getty-in-copyright-case.html>

Ethical publishing principles-piracy & file sharing sites

Source: http://peninsulapress.com

According to Ciolli 2011, based on Nielsen Soundscan, the total album sales have been declining significantly every year since 2006, when 588.2 million units were sold during 200,  while, only 326.2 million albums were sold in 2010.


Technology has change our way and habit of listening to music as compared to 20 years ago. In the current are, those publishers advertise their song in the album on Youtube before it is actually published. The statistics of viewers in the video actually makes them to decide if they should actually release it. Then they will upload the songs into websites like daum.net for koreans or iTunes to purchase the song in a digital format.


According to Ernesto 2010, in 2003, during the first week, the iTunes store opened and over a million of tracks were sold..With the transformation from physical to digital, this hits the industry, which is one of the reason on why the labels’ revenues continued to decline significanty in the U.S. Consumers are no longer necessary had to buy the whole album if only one or two songs they like with the introduction of paid downloads. Hence, this has dramatically changed the music sales landscape.


Besides that, there are file-sharing sites, for example BitTorrent is a by-product of the digital revolution in music. It definitely violates the copyright regulations as copying,sharing, making copies, and downloading is done without permission of the copyright owner (Darthmouth 2013). Fair use is where a portion of the copyright work is used. Hence, committing offenses under the Serious Crime Act 2007 by doing acts capable of encouraging and assisting communication to the public (under s.107(2A) of the CDPA); and/or distribution (under s.107(1)(e) of the CDPA) of copyright content seeded by others (Andy 2013).


Therefore, piracy on file sharing sites are unstoppable as everyone in the world will upload and share new content which allows users to download illegally. Internet usage is too wide to be able to control. According to McKenzie, piracy cannot be abolished as the people who are gaining benefits from the sale of pre-recorded music are the same people who manufacture the gadgets which pirate these entertainment products.” (Campbell, n.d). 

Source: own picture

In conclusion, yes, piracy does affects the album sales of an artist, but looking at a positive side, sharing through internet actually gives exposures of the artist to the whole world. Hence, it is a win-lose situation.


References

Andy 2013, UK Police Launch Campaign to Shut Down Torrent Sites, viewed 3rd June 2013, <http://torrentfreak.com/uk-police-launch-campaign-to-shut-down-torrent-sites-130604/>

Campbell, C n.d, Piracy Killing The Music Business, Or Is It?, Jahworks, viewed 3rd June 2013, <http://jahworks.org/cecelia/piracy-killing-the-music-business-or-is-it/#.UbNNSCJm4b0>

Dartmouth 2013, Peer-to-Peer File Sharing and Copyright Law, Dartmouth Copyright Policy & Guidelines, viewed 3rd June 2013, <http://www.dartmouth.edu/copyright/peer2peer/#fairUse>


Ciolli, J 2011, As illegal albums cut into album sales, Americans choosing to own less music, Peninsula Press, viewed 3rd June 2013, <http://peninsulapress.com/2011/03/06/as-illegal-downloads-cut-into-album-sales-americans-choosing-to-own-less-music/>

Enersto 2010, Is Piracy Really Killing The Music Industry? NO!, Torrent Freak, viewed 3rd June 2013, <http://torrentfreak.com/is-piracy-really-killing-the-music-industry-no-100418/>