Wk1 Comment #1 to Ann Cannizzaro

Response to Post from Ann Cannizzaro
 I too have had many copyright cringe moments at the photocopier as I try to put together work for students and thankfully most copies are okay but there are those times when I've looked over my shoulder to check who's watching. I'd like to think that if I made something the people who used it would at least give me credit for it. (Making money from it would be nice too) I also appreciate the information we have received from Full Sail and would like to continue my education in this topic to make sure that I, and my colleagues are doing all we can to be, not just fair to the creators of the materials, but legally just in our dealings as well.

Original post from Ann Cannizzaro
http://ann-cannizzaro.blogspot.com/2011/05/week1readingcopyright.html

I appreciate this opportunity to learn more about copyright law and the issues that are pending with the advancing technology and access to media works.  It seems that as a society, we tend to do things in whatever way is convenient until we are made to do otherwise.  I think this is true about copyright law.  Historically, the author or owner of a work had to be the watchdog over a work, trying to “catch” anyone using it illegally.  A civil suit would be the means of reclaiming any use or damages done.  This is not a preventative measure.  Rather, it is punitive.  Unfortunately, it’s often more punitive for the copyright holder than it is for the perpetrator.

Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, Image# 5271774

As a public school teacher, I have considered copyright laws on many occasions as I stand at the Xerox machine copying workbook pages and activities for my students.  At times, I have decided that what I didn’t know wouldn’t hurt me or anyone else.  At other times, I have tried to limit my Xeroxing and pay more attention to copyright notices on my educational materials.  As it turns out, much of what I copy is allowed for classroom instruction.  Thank Goodness!

I have faced the issue of copyright again, while attending Full Sail University.  I have incrementally added to my knowledge and awareness of copyright issues and laws.  However, that “ocean of grey” still looms before me as I try to pick and choose images and ideas, as well as music, for my production pieces.  I am earnest in wanting to learn more specific information.  As an instructor, trying to promote 21^st century skills for learning, I need to be ready to help my students understand copyright, and how they can work within it’s confines, to be creative and productive in their learning endeavors.

I appreciate the ads I see now on DVD previews that are aimed at kids, to begin educating them about copyright and the issues with piracy and sharing.  It’s true that the media industry wants to prevent the illegal copying of music and video.  However, technology allows for instant access and sharing that is yet unregulated in many venues.

The film “Good Copy/Bad Copy” brings up some interesting points.  The U.S. Motion Picture Artists Association (MPAA) has an interest in stopping piracy due to a projected monetary loss of up to $6 billion dollars each year.  However, worldwide markets are an open venue for pirated media.  There will never be enough resources to stop piracy.  Rather, the industry needs to educate people about the rights and respect due to the intellectual property holders and creators.  An intrinsic incentive may come to reign at some time in our future.  The nature of technology and open and immediate access to material will require a new focus.  Laws will need to be developed that protect intellectual property rights and provide for media authorship, while promoting a creative and cultural vision for the people.

Lawrence Lessig, representing Creative Commons, argues that copyright laws “are so expansive and complex” that they will inhibit creativity.  The idea behind creative commons is that an artist can choose to what extent and in what manner, another person may “use” their work to produce something “new”.  The work is licensed for use by others.  This is a legal means of building positive relationships between producers and users of intellectual property.  Still, I found the remarks made by Ronaldo Lemos, a professor of law in Brazil, very telling.  The more recent changes to copyright laws have been made to protect industry giants primarily from North America (remember the MPAA?).  His understanding of the intent of the laws is to “prevent society from becoming the producer of culture in itself and for itself”.  I’m not surprised that big business wants to have the authority to determine how copyright law evolves.

http://www.rastervector.com/page3_blog_entry130...ht.jpg

All of this is very interesting food for thought.  My husband wants to be able to protect his rights to a family history he is writing.  My son wants to protect his rights with regards to his photography.  I hope to be the go to person when the time comes to decide how to share, show, or publish their work.  Educate me!


Copyright Images from Google Images.

Wk1 Reading (actually Videos)

That was a great spread of information and personal stories about copyright in this digital age presented in the videos. Copyright is something that has been constantly with me through the years and something I’ve looked at closely in Australia and America. Being a songwriter I am constantly reminded of copyright issues as I consider the melodies I create and, as a performer, I am reminded of the idea of paying for what you use and respecting others work as I would have them respect mine.

Back in the early 90s I was a product demonstrator at Mac World in Sydney for a product that was the first version in what would be later known as Protools. I remember that there were two types of people coming to my stand. One type would be marveling at the technology available to manipulate sound to create new music, the other would be furious at those same abilities used to steal other’s creations (or manipulate their songs without permission). I had more than one person literally screaming at my Mac II and me that I was the beginning of the end of music and should be ashamed at my part in it.

I think it affected me so much that, since that time (until Garageband and even then I try to only use percussion and add my own live instruments) I would create my own percussion loops rather than sample someone else’s songs even though I had the gear to do it.

That’s why the Good Copy/Bad Copy video was quite personal to me and those same issues that faced me twenty years ago are still being faced around the world.

As a registered songwriter in Australia I still receive a very small amount of money every year from the performing rights association, not for the royalties of my music being played on TV or radio but from an amount that is paid to this same association (and then distributed to its members) by the Chinese government because they do not keep records of the sale, distribution or airplay of copyrighted music. This is one way in which governments are recognizing their responsibilities to artists but it does nothing to change the situation in that country.

I also loved the list of Brad Templeton’s copyright myths. I have heard every one of those come from the mouths of friends, colleagues and people who claim to be in the know and some of them very recently. Certainly number one is huge. Even though copyright is automatic, however, it’s easier to take someone to court if you have a piece of paper from the copyright office rather than a self addressed, sealed envelope with your CD and a fading postmark to prove that your wrote it and when.

I have to say, a positive thing about the course we are doing is that this knowledge about copyright and where to find creative commons and public domain material is going to help save us (and/or our bank accounts) in this digital age as we continue to create materials to help us deliver more effective education to our classes. We don’t know where it’s going to end up or who’s going to see so we better have all the creative bits locked down legally.

Gamestar Mechanic

End of month 9 and we have to create a game using Gamestar Mechanic. So here it is. You have to collect all the buttons and you have 5 chances with the health and just to make it more interesting you have 3 minutes so don't be dilly-dallying around

Quick Dash

FV_Addendum

Hi there Finger Tappers,
Just a little add on to my final video. This week Barnes and Noble released the Nook-color. In my video I noted that the Kindle and the Nook, because of their black and white, non-touch screens were not designed to take advantage of the picture book or interactive (enhanced) ebook for younger readers and the iPad seemed to ignore it in their iBooks store aiming only at the older reader. Barnes and Noble, through the release of the Nook-color seem to have embraced this idea and are now positioning themselves to lead this market.

The Nook kids arm of this venture could end up being very important in educational sales and, if ereaders like the Nook-color get a hold in the classroom, could be very profitable and, I'm sure, will soon be emulated by other companies like Amazon and Borders. Even Apple may be forced into addressing the picture book market and, at least, add this functionality to the iBooks store. (There are apps that have picture books available but most are for iPhone and iPod formats and don't translate well to the iPad.)
Anyway, back to my AR angle, it looks as though lower elementary classrooms should be able to get the tools that they need sooner than later after all.

If you have anything to add please just drop a comment below and let me know what you think.
Have a great one
Peter

FV_Final Video-AR Pitch-The Ereader Revolution

Okay Finger tappers. It's 5:43 in the morning and I'm going to bed. Here is the final ETC video based on my AR project. It has been done as an explanation why and a "come and help me" pitch for my project which is based on using Ereader technology to deliver a quality reading program/experience at the elementary school level. Actually, now that I've watched it again it probably sits more in the persuasive writing camp than the AR pitch camp. Bum! Oh well.



Hope you enjoy it anyway.
Bye for now
Peter

PE6b_Garageband-Midi files

I just added this post to give you an idea of the power that you have in front of you right now. This was my set-up back in the late80s, early 90s. 

I would play my main keyboard and, depending on which keyboard or sound module I had selected the sound would be triggered through the computer. The program I used would save each stroke as a Midi event with information like the speed I hit the key and if I moved a dial or changed a sound. I could then manipulate the performance exactly the same way we do now in Garageband (looks exactly the same).

The power and ability of everything you see here (and more) is now available to you in that thin little aluminum box you are staring at (and at about the same cost of one of those keyboards) and it only took twenty years to get to it. With the rate of change that we're experiencing at the moment I wonder what it will look like in another twenty years. (Now apply that to your classroom. Food for thought)

PS. I made the chart with Google Draw! (PE5) Also, if you have a look at my last post you will notice that the blue keyboard to the left of the picture above is the keyboard I now have as a computer plug-in on Garageband. Now I better get that last video done!

PE6_Garageband-Midi files

After having a look at what Michael George had done with his exploration into Garageband on his blog I felt inspired to have another look at one part of Garageband that I hadn't even thought of that could be useful to me. It is the capability of Garageband to import midi files.

As Michael reported in his blog, back in the late 80s and 90s, composers used their computers to record their performance using midi. They would plug their keyboards into their computers and play. The computers would then take that data and play their synthesizers. Today our computers are so powerful that we can have many synthesizers living in the computer so there is no need to run external synthesizers. (Some composers still do only to free up their computers processing power as the virtual synthesizers can be fairly hard on CPU usage) The computer still records the performance and saves it as midi data but now it plays the synthesizers internally.
Because I am a bit of a fossil I still have many of the songs I wrote back in the 80s and 90s in midi files but don't have any of the equipment any more (I have some but not like I used to) so I thought that this might be a great way to bring back some of those songs from the grave (how Halloween of me!)

I loaded the midi file by dragging it onto the work area of Garageband and right before my eyes it appeared. The tracks even had the names of the instruments I used but, unfortunately, its attempt to match wasn't so good.

My bass came up with an Alto sax sound and my choir, an acoustic guitar. It did, however, recognize that all the percussion parts were percussion and assigned them a drum kit.
Another great thing about Garageband is that it has heaps of instruments in it so I decided to see if I could find a bass guitar and a choir that would work for this song. I also wanted to see if I could find some lead synthesizers as well.

 This muted bass looked like it could work and I found a sound that I know is a choir type sound called Bondi Breath. (similar to a sound that came from an old Australian synthesizer called a Fairlight)
It sounds okay but the cool thing is that I also have some emulations of synthesizers I used to own back in the day so I can actually have some of those original sounds.

I can also have some newer synthesizers that have only ever existed as virtual instruments.

I'm not really sure about the sound. My memory is arguing with me about wanting it to be exactly as it was but I'm willing to give it a go and I suppose this is all about trying to make things new and not about resurrecting the dead.
Oh well I suppose I had better keep on with it. Thanks again Michael, for the inspiration.
See You next time
Peter
PS iLife 11 came out yesterday and there are some very cool new tools to play with in Garageband and iMovie so it looks like any spare time is about to go west! (What spare time you say!)