Digital Media: All Sorts of Goodies

There has been an absolute flurry of activity around our primary topics the past several days. Now that the election is over and blogger.com is back to normal traffic I feel like I can actually post some of it. This isn't new today, but I thought I'd point you to some news I saw several days ago, but again today on bbc.com ... "Studios to Sue Net Movie Swappers." Basically it breaks down like this -- you steal and illegally trade/provide a film online, plan on coughing up $30,000.00 per film. Not too cheap! Here's the breakout quote, "We know who they are, and we will go after them." Ok, sounds like the MPAA is going to use the same tactics as the RIAA ... management by fear. Anyway, very relevant stuff …

In related news, Wired.com ran an article today titled, "File-Sharing Thrives Under Radar." It talks about BitTorrent and how it is getting some serious attention from the MPAA and RIAA ... goes on to say that it has existed under the radar for so long, but now that it is gobbling up bandwidth (up to a third!) "Hollywood's copyright police are taking notice." I'm not going to bore you with the details of ol’ BitTorrent, but you should know there is a ton of stuff out there -- spanning from legal music, trailers, etc, to all illegal stuff. Literally anything you want is sitting there ready to be taken. The article gives a great overview of how the technology works -- which is a very cool way to distribute materials by the way -- and lays out the prediction that its days could be numbered. Ouch ... people do use peer 2 peer for good as well ... oh well.

All the while more and more legal music services are expanding ... Apple has a ton of music available online and not to be outdone I read this morning that MSN's download service is expanping. I guess the point is that we are really just on the cusp of this stuff exploding in the digital world. All the stuff we were talking about weeks ago -- the pervasive nature of technology and how we live in the digital world is getting set to go mainstream. Those of us who have been plugged in for the last five years or so don't find this astonishing -- we have been waiting for it. But to see the whole world begin to line up to buy digital products is cool to me ... for crying out loud, my parents even have an iPod and an account on the iTunes Music Store. Ouch again ... only reason I say that is that I am tech support ...

In a totally unrelated sense ... I found this cool little thing today ... take a look at it. I know its a little goofy, but it does hold HUGE potential. Anyway, as always, very curious about you are all thinking and if anything you've been learning via class or your own research makes you want to say something please do -- in other words, comment!

Comments

[Ryan]

Something about that flower is really funny to me. It is interesting though, to think of how customizable things are getting like that -- Even just with ipods -- I can't wait until the day when you can design your own ipod. Also -- I thought the MPAA would've taken a hint from RIAA and realized that these fear tactics do not work. These companies are living in denial it seems, and they're only hurting themselves in the end. I know it's been said a million times in this class already, but the longer they spend wasting time prosecuting their potential customers, the longer somebody else has to find a way to create a profittable solution. These companies need to stop living in the past and start thinking for the future.

[Jason Streeter]

Very interesting...and kind of stalkerish. AIM has the same sort of program that will make a noise and alert you when someone returns to their computer but the technology behind the flower is so much more advanced. I would think this would violate some type of privacy rules, it is almost a way to monitor what someone is doing and know their schedule. Either way, think of the possibilities with this technology. For example, if we had some way to know when our professor was available for office hours, that might actually encourage us to go more often. I know when I need to go to office hours, by the time I check ANGEL or the syllabus it is too late normally, but with this device we would be reminded when we could get help and maybe that would motivate us to use them as a resource!

[Angelica]

Floral Display is the first ambient media link built with the developing One2One framework and I think it should be the last of it’s kind!!. Not rally, but the whole flower concept is a little cheesy. Besides, has not this already been done? Aim does something very similar. But, I would like to know why it would deem necessary to know when someone logs onto his or her computer? Only fatal attractions need technologies such as this n pursuing their stalked. On the other hand, BitTorrent sounds extremely interesting; the process of downloading and how they have been able to avoid all troubles!! Honestly, I’ve heard of it but never really held an interest in understanding it. Actually, I’m surfing their site as we speak. Preparing and debating whether I should download this software (since someone probably keeping tabs) so adios!

[mjc358]

I think that flower is awesome. I mean the idea that this type of stuff can become more ubiquitous is pretty cool. Thats one of the first times Ive really ever seen an application of the link between the digital world and motors and physical functionalities. Its real cool....anyway, back to the MPAA, I feel like this is all just a result of them not being able to see the writing on the wall...can you really fault them for using these tactics to try and curb illegal movie/music trading? They were so ignorant to the technology beforehand, that they really just have no choice but to do this now. If they had seen this coming 10 years ago, like these great business innovators are supposed to, we wouldnt be dealing with this, there would already be a way to download movies and music from the net and the life cycle of that particular industry would be so advanced, that illegal file sharing wouldn't be nearly as huge of a problem as it is now. Instead, they decided to price gouge and charge 21.99 for CDs back in the late 90s...they deserve everything that comes to them....but in the end as usual, its the consumer that ends up paying for the lack of innovative thinking by the big businesses...

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