Fair use in Girl Talk

Fair Use is something that the Girl Talk case really focuses on. Fair Use is something that can be described as a piece of work that adds further purpose or a different aspect. Is the work "transformative"? Does it add another meaning to the original work? These are all determining factors that define what fair use actually is.

With the Girl Talk case specifically, I think it has to be considered transformative. Girl Talk created such a following it was almost a genre-defining style in its own right. All of the songs mashed together in these mixes are so short and have been modified greatly to put his own imprints on. This is the foundation of of what Fair Use should protect.

This guy is digitizing and completely altering just portions of a variety of songs, therefore it does not really have an effect on the market. The only commercial aspect in terms of record sales of Girl Talk was a CD where customers were asked to pay a price of their choosing. Someone could pay as little as, say, 1.00 or $10.00. The artists' music which feature in Girl Talk's mixes, though, are not selling records like that. Therefore Girl Talk doesn't impair the marketability of the original works.

Girl Talk has received a lot of criticism for sparking this revolution of his, the New York Times called him a "Lawsuit waiting to happen." Clearly he has ignited a lot of interest from media nationwide, yet he is still free of charges. It's pretty interesting that despite all of the interest he has garnered for so long now, he is still in the clear. Perhaps they haven't felt it is worth all of the time and money that would go into what would surely be a lengthy case.

Interactivity

Interactivity is what is advancing technology as we move forward. Now, more than ever, consumer interaction is being viewed as something that can take companies from being good to great. You look at innovative companies, Nike, for example... and you can see why they are the dominant force in sporting apparel. On nikestore.com the user can view products from all angles as if they were actually in the store. You can even design your own shoes by interacting with their NIKEID shoe maker. This is what media richness is all about, something you can't get from a magazine advertisement or something in the local paper. We want to be able to get up close and personal with what we want to buy instead of simply looking at all of the product's specifications.

Many sites have begun overhauling their web designs because of the increased demand for interactivity. Twitter, for example, has made a lot of changes trying to simplify their layout while enabling users to share content as much as possible. A downfall of this is confusing people with multiple designs and consistent changes, something I feel like is a detriment to overambitious organizations such as Twitter.

I look at freep.com/sports which is a Detroit newspaper that has largely improved their web interface. It now looks the part of a new-generation news outlet. I compare that to theoaklandpress.com/sports, whose website is no where near as visually appealing to audiences.. and this is what grab's the user's attention. People looking to build their audiences need to understand the importance of user interactivity in order to attract a larger following.

This article details the importance of this concept, and how companies can use information more effeciently with interactive designs. Media interactivity is the next step to news media outlets, and is something all outlets should be trying to improve.
http://news.psu.edu/story/397542/2016/03/15/research/companies-are-interactive-informative-can-be-more-influential

Information in five years

I would agree most with Reeds Law because of it really shows the power of social media. As your connections expand on various social media sites you begin to grow faster and faster because of mutual friends.


In five years from now I don't think we will have any major breakthrough in communication messaging that will completely alter the way we get information. Obviously smartphones are the all-in-one information streams these days, and although a lot of potential is out there, I don't think anything is going to top the smartphone. People are too connected to the phone that is in their pocket, and the smartphone is only becoming stronger by the year. Battery lives are becoming longer, screens are becoming bigger and even curved. In five years, the newspaper will probably be even less relevant than it is today. ESPN will still dominate the airwaves because cable conglomerates are probably not going anywhere in five years.

Virtual reality may have a say in the way we gather information at one point, but can it hold the user's interest long enough to keep the equipment on? That's my question about virtual reality, although I believe you could see virtual reality become a source of news one day if app developers could tie into the VR market. You could have ESPN in virtual reality, for example. That would be pretty cool.

Online identity

Now, your identity goes almost hand-in-hand with your online profile. People see you in the streets, at school, or at work and they develop a thought process about you.. what they think about how you look, dress, speak and many other things. In today's day and age, this is becoming less and less relevant, as ridiculous as that sounds. People are more concerned with what you like online and who your friends with on Facebook instead of how you conduct yourself in real life. But why?

Because social media and the internet is the way people communicate now. The internet has the ability to broadcast information to others more directly and more obtrusively, whether you like it or not. Personally, I am a private kind of guy. I don't like to tell you about myself all day long, I'd prefer to show you. However, it's almost impossible to be truly private today. I have a Facebook to keep up with friends back in the DC area, and a Twitter for friend's I have met around the country playing in Major League Gaming tournaments. What that means is if I want to have any kind of social ability online, I almost have to give up my privacy. People can read and watch what I do, whom I am connecting with, even where my current location is... which is downright scary. I can't say I understand why so many people "check-in" on Facebook... but that's another issue for another day.

A recent interest

Within the last year, i've started watching soccer. I grew up in an El-Salvadorian dominated neighborhood right outside Washington D.C., and soccer was the first sport I really played. I wasn't the best, but it was fun. My grandfather  wanted me to stop playing because I was a gifted basketball and baseball player when I was younger, and he didn't want me getting my legs torn up. By about age 11 I hung up my soccer cleats, and when I was 13 I moved to North Carolina.

I started watching the UEFA Champions League last season, when Barcelona won the treble (domestic league champions, domestic cup champions and Champions league champions). The technical skill involved in soccer has got me hooked. The ability these guys have with the ball at their feet can be downright astonishing. I've developed such an interest that I now follow the sport abroad on a daily basis. I watch ESPN FC, ESPN's very own soccer TV show, ton's of articles relating to some of my favorite players like Lionel Messi, Neymar and Riyad Mahrez... and my favorite team, Barcelona.

I never would have thought soccer would be one of the sports I follow religiously. It's a sport I haven't played in over ten years, and I've moved away from all of the friends I grew up playing the sport around. It's definitely one of those things that you would never guess about me!