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?

One of the major changes that has come with the rising popularity of ebooks has been self-publishing.  Many authors are bypassing the traditional route of using agents, editors, and publishing houses in favor of self-publishing.  One recently famous example of this new trend is with the controversial Fifty Shades trilogy.  The wikipedia article on self-publishing outlines the advantages and disadvantages of self-publishing.  This article focuses on some of the positive aspects of self-publishing, such as price and diversity, based on its recent success and popularity.

What do you think of self-publishing?  It is helping or hurting the publishing industry, the quality of literature today?  If you were a writer, would you self-publish?

After I read the blog prompt I coincidently stumbled upon a blog post about a possible future of ebooks. On his blog, Seth Godin wrote today about Amazons next kindle to be released to the public: the Kindle Zero. Why is it called zero? It will be free to amazon prime members. If only it were true… it is however a pretty plausible April fools joke. Many people retweeted Godin in full belief that kindle zero was a real thing.

The second interesting news in the blog was the potential cash reward given by Random House and Wiley to read books. (Not an april fools joke) This would be applied to 10% of their books that were previously free. Read a book and earn money. The ebook would use some program to tell if the reader read the book and didn’t just flip through it or scroll to the end. The chart below demonstrates how publishers would actually profit from this:  explained by this site

The one part of the clip from the sweet spot that really struck me was when they were talking about how the music world has changed drastically over the years. The one man mentioned how he once did a story on The Drive By Truckers and they said, “thank god people can’t download t-shirts.” This was really eye opening to me, as I’ve never fathomed something like that. In our society people just don’t do that. But when you think about it, it’s the same concept as pirating music from the internet. In both cases, your are stealing something illegally. For some reason in our society however, stealing music has become a norm that people don’t think twice about. And if anything people who actually pay for the  songs they have are in the minority. It’s a sad thought to ponder that we are a generation of people that have grown so accustomed to a specific type of theft. The music world has suffered from this and the book world has suffered and will continue to suffer from this with the influx of E-books. Should clothing companies be worried that they are next- that one day someone may find a way to actually download clothing?

I found Professor Sikand’s discussion to be very interesting and eye-opening. The points that stuck out to me most is what the viewers don’t see: the money involved when a song is on the radio, how shots are altered, etc. As viewers, I think we assume–or at least I often do–that the shots are displayed were filmed just that way and did not require much thought. Much to the contrary, filmmaking is incredibly detail oriented as Professor Sikand pointed out on Thursday. We only seem to notice, however, when things look wrong or out of place.

I found the discussion that we had about the haka on Thursday to be very interesting. It exemplified the complications of international copyright law. I went on Youtube to try to find different groups who performed the Haka.

Here is the closest clip I could find as an “original.” You’ll notice that it much longer than the other clips that I have linked to this post. The people also seem to have more passion when performing it.

This clip is the Haka plus a translation performed by the All Blacks. I found it interesting that the Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable defined the haka as “A Maori ceremonial war dance involving chanting, an imitation of which is performed by New Zealand rugby teams before a match.” It has become a trademark (perhaps not in the legal sense) of the team.

This clip is the Haka as it was shown in the movie Invictus. Lastly, this clip is the Haka as performed by the University of Hawaii swim team. Is it right that the Maori’s chant to be used in these contexts?

The New York Times included an article about Mr. Chinua Achebe today because he passed away at the age of 82. I remember being captivated by Things Fall Apart when I was required to read it in 8th grade and then sophomore year of high school. I included the article in my blog post, though, because of the following excerpt:

He continued to believe that writers and storytellers ultimately held more power than army strongmen.

“Only the story can continue beyond the war and the warrior,” an old soothsayer observes in Mr. Achebe’s 1988 novel, “Anthills of the Savannah.” “It is the story that saves our progeny from blundering like blind beggars into the spikes of the cactus fence. The story is our escort; without it, we are blind.”

This course has pushed me to think about the importance of literature. The Tedx video, Brooks talk, and this article all highlight the power and influence of storytelling. This influence is not bound to authors and literature. Rather, we communicate through stories all of the time.