The Produsage reading was kinda confusing and sort of like blah 2 me…but after 2days the lecture, I now have a better understanding of it. I guess Kompoz.com would be like Produsage. Kompoz is an open collaboration community.  Here’s how it’s described on the site—-> Kompoz is a free online music collaboration service.  Use it to compose new music with other artists around the world.  Got an idea for a song?  Record a track.  Upload it.  Then invite others to add drums, bass, lyrics, vocals or anything else.

I just realized that my post from earlier never actually posted….so anyways… I was really interested in the discussion we had on Tuesday on fan fiction. Anyone can create fan fiction on anything they are a fan of like Harry Potter, Star Wars, Toy Story, videogames, and even individual people. I like to browse pictures, memes, etc on imgur all the time. Usually at night when I get in bed I’ll get on imgur and find myself browsing through for over an hour. This site, which is an image hosting service, is a perfect place for people to share the memes and images theyve created or tweaked. Even if the image is profane, the person who made it might have had a lot of fun making it and thinks that it is amazing. They do it because they love it! Here are two images that I found on imgur– the first is from The Nightmare Before Christmas and a truck with a Star Wars themed name and slogan.

Wikipedia was introduced to the world in 2003.
I like to think Wikipedia goes by the motto of history is changing, and the world needs to keep up.

Wikipedia has endless, affordable storage. Its easily accessible and gives those true fans, to show their urgency towards their likings. It was asked in class,

Do you think Wikipedia will ever end?

The answer is no. Wikipedia has reinvented the encyclopedia. Even the encyclopedia is trying to move into a more web base format but still lacks people updating and letting those true fans ‘spread their wings’- open participation.

Class discussion was about copyright laws and what is considered breaking the law and remaking an idea tha has already been created. Music is big on taking older songs and remixing them or using certain lyrics or chorus from othe songs. The rap industry is heavy on sampling music from all genres. Kanye West sample music in majority of his records. I feel that if you give the proper credit or ask for the usage of the song then it shouldn’t be a problem. Another rapper, Mac Miller, recently got in trouble for sampling music from Warm Speakers. He is suing Mac Miller, Rostrum Records and DatPiff for $10M for illegally sampling his song “The World Around You”. Youtube users also have users putting up music unreleased music and being taken down because of copyright laws. Copyright laws are necessary because without them a lot of artist will take credit or not give credit for work that isn’t theirs.

Pod-casting has become one of the most easiest form to obtain entertainment. You can download a podcast on just about any topic. Pod-casts origin stems from blogging. Blogging allows people to share thoughts, frustrations  and rants about any topic via the internet.

With the development of RSS feeds, fans can subscribe to their favorite bloggers news feeds and receive alerts when they post a new entry.  Not only do fans receive news feeds about our favorite bloggers or topics they receive news feed about similar bloggers. Developers made the ability to transfer large pieces of information faster by improving internet connections. Bloggers began producing audio blogs.  Instead of writing their thoughts they recorded themselves and posted to their blog sites.  Audio blogs had to be downloaded on to an mp3, this process could be bothersome because fans had to constantly check for new post and then download them on their mp3 player.

This led developers to look or an easier way for bloggers to produce audio blogs and they created the pod-cast. Pod-cast became known as  amateur radio.  Some of the topics makes me wonder who on earth would want to listen to this.  However their seems to be a market for everything. Levinson mentions the popularity of Grammar A Girl which generates millions of hits by fans who want to improve their writing.

Topics can range from sewing to astronomy.  You can learn how to cook a gourmet meal or how to use proper grammar. You can listen to someone talk for hours about bat man or some historical event.  These topics would not make the professional radio’s programming, however there is a huge  audience that will listen to them.  If you are passionate about topic you can find it on a podcast. I personally will listen to the podcast about cooking and making crafts.

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.