After today’s brownbag, I decided to look up the court case our guest speakers mentioned, Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons.  According to Forbes.com, this ruling in favor of the student is a “major victory for American consumers because it allows them to shop worldwide for their copyrighted content” (Shapiro).  According to the article, the first-sale doctrine has been taken to court on a number of occasions, including one case in 1984 regarding the VCR.  As students who often purchase used textbooks online from unknown sources, it is important to be aware of the legalities of such actions.

For my third portfolio, I will be focusing on the impact that ebooks and the rise of digital technology have had on lending institutions, such as libraries.  (Today’s lunch talk was especially useful for me in this sense.)  I will use examples of libraries such as the University of Virginia, the New York Public Library, and Google Library to illustrate the positive and negative aspects that this technology has had on libraries.  I hope to incorporate Paul Goldstein’s concept of the celestial jukebox to demonstrate one possible solution/alternative to the lending of ebooks.

I will be looking at what Barthes and Foucault had to say about authorship and readership.  I will then evaluate within the context of the marriage and the 14th Amendment. The Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses in Section 1 have been interpreted differently throughout time. They read, “Nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” How is original intent applied to what is supposed to be a living document? How is legal text evaluated differently as society progresses.

The 14th amendment was established in 1868. Before Loving v. Virginia legalized interracial marriage, conviction of interracial sex as a felony did not violate the 14^th Amendment. Courts did not see it as a violation of equal protection because both whites and non-whites were prosecuted equally for the charges. In 1967, the Warren Court found Virginia’s anti-miscegenation law unconstitutional because it violated the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment. Today, these clauses are being evaluated with regards to same-sex marriage. When Hollingsworth v. Perry went in front of the Ninth Circuit District Court, Judge Walker ruled that the ban of same-sex marriage violated the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment. The case has been in front of the Supreme Court, and a decision is expected this summer. How will the Roberts Court read and apply the 14th Amendment? 

Overall, I am a pro-book person when it comes to the debate between books and e-books. But I can see that the e-book does offer some advantages over the book. I think it would be neat to set up a compare contrast essay while also maybe incorporating interviews into the essay, for the audio part. What I mean by that would be for example, recording a few of my professors’ view points on the debate between such. This topic is greatly relevant to today’s society because e-books are becoming more and more popular day by day, while the book is waning in its popularity. “No technology, not even one as elegant as the book, lasts forever”- Jeff Bezos

Being from around the area, I was probably one of the few students who knew what the Moravian Book Shop was (when you mentioned it in class), let alone been inside of it many times. Since a lot of my high school friends live in Bethlehem, we’d find ourselves on the main street quite a lot, never able to resist entering the Moravian Book Shop. As you can tell from the picture it is not your typical book store; it sells much more than just books. And it even has a cafe in which to dine.

This store is extremely well known in the community in which I grew up. And it is definitely one of the quaintest stores I have ever been in. During the holiday season, this store is especially festive and bustling with customers. Thinking about Amazon putting places like the Moravian Book Shop out of business is a sad thought. I know that many people in the community would be greatly disappointed if that were to happen. The experience of going into that store can not even be captured by going to a regular book store, such as Barnes & Nobel, let alone buying from an online selection of books provided by Amazon. Needless to say, the Moravian Book Shop is a very unique store that would be a shame for the lehigh valley to lose.

I was browsing my facebook newsfeed yesterday and came across this article: NBC “confirms” Friends new comeback season reunion! Being a big fan of Friends, of course I had to check this out. I was very excited reading the first paragraph of the article, but the second paragraph was not as promising. It noted that NBC was not aware if the original cast members of Friends were all willing to participate in this new season. This made me think of copyright laws. Friends would just not be the same show even if only one cast member were to be substituted. Each character brings with them their own personal touch to the show and although a good actor/actress may be able to act out the lines well- the experience of watching the show would be completely different. Especially for the generations that watched Friends, swapping a new actor in for someone else would be terrible. I know, at least, I wouldn’t be able to get past the introduction of a new actor as Ross, Joey, Chandler, Monica, or Rachel. Perhaps for younger generations that were not as familiar with the show, a new actor wouldn’t pose any problem. But for the Friends fans, it would not be fair to change the characters who we grew up with and still call it the same show.

The new augmented reality book brings the traditional pop up book into the future. As seen on amazon, this book along with a computer and a web cam create a whole new way to read and experience children’s books.

What do you think of digital pop- up books? http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=1s-JFxEmtpY

Its amazing to see how specific and complex copyright has already become.  Copyright has already developed from full works, to sentences, to phrases, and now to now words.  Not just a word, but the expression and pronunciation of a single word.  Looking through an article on 5 Everyday things you won’t believe are copyrighted, among the rediculous copyrighted things like living species and the phrase “Super Bowl,” one of the most intriguing is the copyright on the word “yup.”  Dave Hester from Storage Wars copyrighted the word “yup.”  Problem is, an article in the NY post explains that rapper Trey Songz’ lawyer took Hester to court for using the same word and making tshirts and hats out of the word.  Hester argued, “the main difference is that Songz’ version “resembles an animal-like or nonhuman squeal which begins with a distinct ‘yeeee’ sound before finishing with a squeal-like ‘uuuup’ sound,” as opposed to Hester’s own “monosyllabic sounding guttural auction bidding phrase.”  Hester tried to fight back: “Hester’s suit seeks unspecified damages and a court order barring Songz from “interfering” with his use of “YUUUP!” which Hester trademarked in September.”  Songz’ lawyers never responded to the statement, probably because they didnt expect Hester to fight back.  The two words actually have different expressions.

When I was about 15 my uncle brought me to my first broadway play since I had seen the Lion King when I was very young, it was called Avenue Q. For those that do not know Avenue Q is a comedy which utilizes both real people and puppets in its story. It was and still is one of the funniest things I have ever seen. This being the high point of my illegal downloading phase, my first instinct was to go on the internet and find a recording and watch it again. However, much to my dismay, I was unable to find any video of more than 2 minutes of the actual play. This really confused me, if movies and music were so easily accessible on the internet, why shouldn’t plays be readably accessible. Now though, I understand the importants of keeping plays off the internet, if plays were readily available on the internet it would devastate the industry. Not to mention it would take away from the art form as a whole. The day I saw Avenue Q it was a whole day trip, it was an experience. I took the train into the city, ate dinner in times square and then finally ended the night with the actual play, really adding to the play as an experience and not just something you see.