I learned that when a corporation copyrights something it is covered for 95 years. When an individual copyrights something, they are covered for a lifetime and 70 years after that. It is important to avoid copyright infringement at all costs. Some are not as strict as others when it comes to filing lawsuits against those they feel may tarnish their brand. George Lucas is one of those people who is not as strict as Disney is when it comes to his brand. You see all types of Star Wars inspired stories like, Family Guy, Robot Chicken, Spaceballs, etc. If someone were to get an idea an showcase Star Wars in a way that is not family friendly then they more than likely will be in the midst in a lawsuit filed by George Lucas who does not want Star Wars portrayed in that way period. I have seen porn that had a Star Trek theme, and it is safe to say I will not see one with a Star Wars theme, because they do not want to pay what they would have to in a lawsuit, I wouldn’t. A parody can fall under fair use, somehow, so you may be protected if you title it that, but who knows? Don’t play with Disney like that though…

Some fans push the envelope with their fanfic stories but can they go too far?  This pic is funny as hell 2 me but I can understand why some companies might get a little upset if their characters are used inappropriately.  Can you imagine the fan fiction that goes along with this image?  Sesame Street is so family friendly and wholesome and this image is NOT. It’s probably hard for companies to monitor and sort through what’s appropriate fanfic and what is not… so they probably just decide to take legal action against everybody.

I don’t read a lot of fan fiction but I do watch fanvids on youtube.  A lot of the times the vidders/creators will put disclaimers in the description box of their youtube vids like —–> Disclaimer: I do not own anything but the editing! The song belongs to The Fray and their record label and the clips belong to whoever owns them. I DO NOT make any profits from this video, which makes this video legal to post under section 107, “fair use” of the copyright act 1976. I Just Make Videos For Fun So Please Don’t Sue Me! NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT INTENDED AT ALL!

Like most people of our generation, I am a fan of many different things that are at least somewhat involved in the media.  I am a huge Harry Potter fan, I enjoy all kinds of music and dance but mostly R&B/Hip Hop Music and Hip Hop dance, and I am just a movie fan in general.  With that being said, I do not see myself making any kind of fan fiction, re-vamping a script, or putting a spin on any those things and making a video out of it.  My enjoyment from those things usually always comes straight from the source.  That is also why I do not particularly enjoy watching any fan fiction videos or spoofs.  They just do not spark my interest.  Some might say I am just not as big a fan as the people who make these kinds of videos, but I just think I am a different kind of fan.  The farthest I would go when it comes to making a video based off of being a fan of something is just using a song or two as the back track of a video of me or my friends doing something completely original.  This is also apparently against copyright laws because I do not own the rights to redistribute that song to the public.  This is especially ridiculous to me because like the incident mentioned in class, one can be sued for even unintentionally having a track in the background of a video and posting the video online.  The charges are usually dropped for ridiculous cases like this thankfully.  Some corporations are a little stricter on distribution like this such as Disney and George Lucas, but mainly just Disney.

In class we discussed the various copyright laws and what defines something from breaking the law and being a recreation or Interpretation of an idea already expressed by someone else. Mordern art is notorious for stepping on and crossing the line of copyright infringement. Andy Warhol was the best example. His idea was to recreate an image until it no longer had substance. His ideas have been recreated by more current artist such as Shepard Fairey who became famous for his “Andre the Giant has a Posse”  campaign taken from the Weekly World News. Fairey’s Andre the Giant became an issued trademark of his OBEY brand and  he has sued people for attempting to recreate the image he took from a publication. Futuremore remixes are gaining popularity in the world of music. Greg Gillis also know as Girl Talk has created five albums that include nothing but samples of other peoples works that sounds like an ipod on shuffle. He has released all his albums for free or pay what you want. The albums are also released under the Creative Commons license which gives people the right to share his work, use, and build on the work that he has created.

Fan fiction and machinima were simultaneously introduced to me a few years ago through this video. As I briefly mentioned in class, this machinima video was actually created to bring some really horrible and poorly written Half Life fan fiction to life. It eventually became a popular Internet meme, Half-Life: Full Life Consequences.

But the best thing about this whole scenario was that all of the parties involved with this production loved the Half Life video games– so much so that they began creating their own content and distributing it online via FanFiction.net, HalfLife2.net, and Youtube. Within the same day of one user, SquirrelKing, submitting his writing, another user, blind51de, submitted a dramatic reading of the text. As this consumer-generated content floated around the Web, less than a year later, an additional user, Djy1991, merged the fan fiction and the dramatic reading (using a different narrator, Cannon590A) with game play. He created two videos, including the one mentioned above and Half-Life: Full Life Consequences: What Has Tobe Done. Half Life fans loved the fan films, and they requested SquirrelKing (the original author) to write a sequel. So what happened here was a chain of events all starting with the mass produced and mass played video game Half Life. These fans created fan fiction and fan film, and eventually, they gained fans as well; there are even spoofs of the fan-made videos.

This is a perfect example of people building on mainstream media. While Half Life is not in the public domain, users have taken the characters and animation from the game to produce their own versions of Half Life. Though this is definitely a violation of copyright, the video game industry seems to be one of the most lenient industries regarding this issue. They want gamers to be involved with and assume the roles of the characters. They believe it allows the gamers to shape their experiences with the game better. But how far is too far? I personally think when a brand is diluted because of fan fiction or fan film, that’s when it crosses the line (this would just be a matter of judgement). But other than that, I think it’s great for consumers to have deeps relationships with products that they love. That’s the fun in being a fan!

I know I am late, but that is only because I don’t know if semi-locked rules this out, but I wish to do Harry Potter. Let me know if that is cool or not… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Potter if this isn’t ok I would like to do Lord Voldemort which also is semi-locked, but only to block vandelism, is this one ok? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Voldemort And if all else fails, how about… How about one of my favorite Dragonball Z characters Vegeta???? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegeta This one isn’t locked at all…

I know I’m late but it took a lot more thinking than I thought but I chose to do CSI: Miami. I use to love watching this show and the other series. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CSI:_Miami

I’m using my Wikipedia article to be 90210.

I’m in love with this series. I have literally watch every (new) sitcom

Professional careers are now being threatened by amateurs. The lines between a professional and an amateur are blurred. In terms of Wikipedia vs. the Encyclopedia…I guess the amateurs are the 1’s posting to Wikipedia….and the professionals are the ones contributing to the Encyclopedia. I really can’t tell you what makes one person a “professional” and another an “amateur”. But the rules should be defined….Like with that journalistic privilege thing….. “Who deserves to have this privilege?” Should anyone that does journalist things, like blogging, have access to it?

The wiki stub article that I chose was Detoxification. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detoxification I chose it because I was talking to a friend about the subject the other day.  I thought it would be a good topic to research.