Would a centralized store to buy copyrighted material be a good idea?  I don’t know how having such a store would be fathomable.  A very powerful company or organization would have to run it, like the government, which would make people hate it automatically.  It would be an easy way to determine who bought and downloaded what, but there would be no competition.  All ebooks would be buying their books from the same store; there would be no pricing differences for companies to outbid against each other; all music would be sold through one company instead of many different record labels.  One entity would own all distribution rights to everything in the world.  I don’t think this sounds very good, do you?

On a lighter note, since we are talking about ebooks and such, here is a video of an iPad being microwaved! ps. it explodes!!!!

I am and I think I will forever be anti E-books. In my first portfolio I argued that copyright is not doing it’s job of protecting original works by allowing E-books to be around. Although it is protecting the content of works, it lacks to protect the formatting, feel, and experience of reading a book. In her book, The Book: The Life Story of a Technology, Nicole Howard wrote, “printed books are the product of a press, but long before the type is set, it is the author’s vision and voice that makes possible a book’s existence.” To me, it is important that such vision and voice are protected in addition to just protecting the content. And with E-books, I do not think it is possible to have such protected.

On a different note, having never used a kindle before, I was appalled to find out that on certain kindles there are adds that pop up in the middle of reading. I think that that is absolutely ridiculous. How can you possible stay on track and indulged in a book, when there are adds popping up all over the place. The experience can’t possibly be the same as reading from a regular book. And that isn’t fair to the reader or to the author who wrote the work.

Last summer, two professors from East Carolina University published a study called “Reading Engagement: A Comparison Between E-Books and Traditional Print Books in an Elementary Classroom.” According to the results of the study, third grade students indicated a “preference for e-books when given the option of a wide selection of titles and the freedom to choose their own e-book.”  E-books are more “interactive and allow for children to become actively engaged in the text.”  This is incredibly important for developing children’s interest in literature and affects their motivation to read later in life.

I noticed that Daniel posted about a parody of Taylor Swift’s song,“I Knew You Were Trouble.” In his post he argued that the pokemon parody he posted about in fact fell under fair use for obvious reasons that it was a parody and not actually taking away from the popularity of Taylor Swift’s song. However, he also made the point that the video was aimed at audiences that didn’t like Taylor swift. To me that is an interesting point. It does logically make sense that if someone does a parody of another song that means that they are making fun of it, and that they probably don’t like it. But as a Taylor Swift fan, I still enjoyed watching the pokemon parody of her new song, as do I greatly enjoy the goat parody of her new song. Thus, I would have to disagree that such parodies are aimed at audiences who are anti Taylor Swift. I think that these were created more simply for entertainment purposes. Especially in regard to the goat video, I do not think that the message is that the creator thinks Taylor Swift sings like a goat. But rather, I think the creator thought (and thought correctly) that the incongruity of a goat popping up and screaming the one part of the song would be hilarious. Thus, I do not believe that all parodies have to be anti the original creator of the work.

That being said, most of the time, parodies probably are poking fun at the original work to appeal to audiences who are anti the original creator. For example, as Im sure everyone has seen, Rebecca Black’s Friday song video, has loads of parodies made from it.  But unlike the goat or pokemon video, these parodies are in fact “hating” on Rebecca Black’s song.

Margaret Atwood, a highly respected contemporary poet, posted this article about self-publishing on Twitter yesterday.  It’s a funny and informative take on self-publishing.  This blogger claims that self-publishing is difficulty and often unsuccessful, writing that, “self-publishing successfully takes a certain kind of reach and/or work ethic.”  In light of my previous blog post, which opinion do you agree with more? Pro or anti self-publishing?