WTF?
Remember back in the day when not everyone could get onto the internet before there was a true world wide web? Then AOL, which was really a glorified oversized BBS, became an internet gateway in 1993 and the USENET users were up in arms. They called the event Eternal September, because of the constant flood of users who came in not understanding how things worked, the social norms of USENET or the proper netiquette that had been established. Whenever a new service makes gaining access (perhaps just by highlighting its existence) to parts of the Internet easier for its users, there is usually a time period often referred to as an ”Eternal September Event” that occurs.
The most recent Eternal September Event I witnessed was on Facebook.
It shouldn’t be surprising that Facebook is more popular than Jesus himself. It’s the dominant social network of the world where MySpace once reigned. While it made leaps and bounds by keeping the design clean and uncluttered, indoctrinating third party apps, and enhancing your privacy levels… some of the more annoying MySpace trends have crept over. Most notable are the Facebook Notes feature, which on MySpace were called Bulletins, that allows its members a medieval form of blogging while taking internet memes and their tagging requirement to the next level.
The Event
I was tagged by one friend in a note with his own creation after following this meme:
Create Your Own Album Cover
To create your own album cover:
1 - Go to “wikipedia.” Hit “random… Read More”
or click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first random wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.2 - Go to “Random quotations”
or click http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.3 - Go to flickr and click on “explore the last seven days”
or click http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days
Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.4 - Use photoshop or similar to put it all together.
It’s a basic internet meme, one I think I may have done back in 2006 or something. No big deal right? Well shortly thereafter another friend wrote this as his status:
Brian asks that his friends stop copying people’s photographs for the “Create Your Own Album Cover” game.
Needless to say, there was a lively debated discussion in the Status Comments.
The Debate
My friend playing devil’s advocate argued:
1. If you put a photo out there, you have to expect that anyone who sees it can easily copy it. The photo I used for my “create your fake bands first album cover game” was taken directly from flicker. I didn’t use any special tools or gimics. I simply used my mac to take a screen cap and then croped the photo.
2. I didn’t do it to make fun of the art it self, nor do I claim any ownership to it. Futher more, by the very rules of the game it is apparant that noone playing claims any ownership of the photos they are using. The rules direct you to flicker and tell you to allow flicker to choose a random image for you. That was kinda the point.
3. I make no profit nor gain anything from using this photo.
4. I did not use the photo in a slanderous manner, nor did I depict the subject in a manner that was offensive or misrepresentitive.
5. I have seen many people who wish to retain exclucivity and ownership to a photo utilize a watermark, which the particular photo in question did not have.While I can understand the need for an artist to protect his art, I don’t see muhgrounds for argument for the situation in question.
My friend who took the position of the established community (in this case Flickr) argued:
1) How is that different from saying that if you write a song, you expect people to pirate it. Just because it happens, doesn’t make it right. As I said, I know things can be copied off Flickr, but Flickr is more than just a photo hosting site. It’s a community and I get a lot of critiques, and guidance from it.
2) IMHO, the rules encourage the theft of intellectual property.
3) No one said there was profit or gain from it, but it’s still wrong. If I download an album or a movie, and don’t sell it, does that make it right?
4) No, the photos used are not slanderous, however, as an artist, I take offense to a photo being used in a meaning other than the artist intended without the artist’s permission. My heart would break if one of my images was used as the butt of a joke.
5) Yes, watermarks are used, and use them here. However, as I stated Flickr is more than just file hosting, and most people prefer to critique the full, unobstructed image.
Which was met once again by the devil’s advocate with:
Ok Point by point (and again, I just love the debate, no malice intented bro)
1. The piracy of digital music is a complicated thing. the MP3 phenonanon was indirectly a result of the record companies greed. A great new mediumwas created and rather than utilize it to recreate themselves in a new buisness modle, they fought it tooth and nail, subsequently it has become their undoing (but i could talk about that for days)
In the case of flicker, again I claim no ownership to the photo so i’m not really stealing it. In fact it could be argued that by te very nature of altering it, i have changed in completely and it is no longer the same photo. I guess I kind of see this as no different than drawing a mustache on a newspaper photo. The photo may oneday win the pulitzer prize. My mustache drawing has no real effect. the difference here is that far more people see the mustache that would on the newspaper.
Point 2 - I don; know if you can really consider this theft. The original photo is can be found safe and sound in it’s original place. The credit, still belonging to it’s originator. The game I played was clearly in good fun. I don; think anyone could confuse my game entry as a claimto the original artwork.3. Actually there is nothing illegal about downloading movies or music. If it’s out there you can download it. it is when you become the distributor that the problem occurs. Grated this is a chicken or the egg argument but it is in fact the way it works. You will never see a search warrant on my mp3 hardrive but if I were to digially share that music over a file share system I would be sued.
4. The fact is the photo is not the butt of the joke. The game or joke is tantamount to the old, how to create your “porn name” by choosing the name of the street you were born on and your first pet I belive.
5. Ran out of space,but I said my peice on watermarks. To u sir
The debate continued on, in the adverse conditions of Facebook Status Comments I might add, with my own opinion voiced.
Understanding The Root Of The Problem
The root of the problem is a severe lack of understanding of both the service and the proper netiquette associated with them.
It is important to understand exactly what Flickr is. While it obviously is a photo sharing site, it is also forged around a community like Facebook itself. On the community side, it is a place for photographers to gather and share their work for both critique and inspiration. The thread of commonality in image creation and artistry binds them around a toolset focused on interaction through both words and pictures. Similar to YouTube, the Flickr community is generally a niche community that allows the public to look in on it. Transparency after all is a basic building block of Web 2.0 communities.
On the technical side it allows its users to either retain all rights (© All Rights Reserved) or to license the photos out for other people to use in Creative Commons Licensing. Choosing the Creative Commons Licensing option will allow anyone to save your image or copy HTML code to display your image pursuant to the terms of the license. This gives the creator more exposure. More exposure can bring both more opportunity and gives the creator a greater influence within their sphere.
So how would you find images that are usable via the terms of the license in the meme? Simple really… just use Flickr’s Search For Attribution License located here: http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/by-2.0/ . This license allows you to alter the photo with cropping or writing and can be used in both commercial and non-commercial settings as long as you give attribution to the creator with a link back to their profile.
It is the meme creator and those who blindly did it, with a lack of understanding about how Flickr actually works, who are the root of the problem. They are the “Frosh” that USENET users endured every September until that fateful day when September became an eternal way of life.
The Conclusion
Even though AOL disconnected from USENET in 2005, Eternal September continues across the internet. There have been huge leaps and bounds made regarding copyright and ownership on the internet. Ignorance of the rules is not an excuse, nor is it excusable to disrespect someone else’s community by blatantly promoting actions against it. It’s just uber poor netiquette.
It goes beyond poor netiquette though. There are also some pretty scary things out there that could adversely affect the internet as we know it, like New Zealand’s Copyright Act of 1984 amendment of Section 92A that would require ISPs to disconnect an account after three accusations of downloading copyrighted materials from file sharing sites. Sure they specifically say “file sharing” sites insinuating bit torrent, like The Pirate Bay who currently has their administrators on trial, but let’s relook at Flickr… a photo-sharing site… which happens to have photos in files. So if you go to Flickr and make three albums, and are accused of such, you lose access to the internet. Or worse… your company could lose access to the internet. Luckily it has been delayed thanks to the protests of the New Zealand blogosphere.
Where were the New Zealand Facebookers??? Oh right… too busy stealing images off Flickr. Why mention New Zealand? At the risk of sounding like an alarmist, because there is a similar US version in Congress right now.
The truth simply is that if you put it out there people will find a way to take it, but that does not make it automatically right.
FULL DISCLOSURE: I totally copied the above arguments from the Status Update debate on Facebook word for word, including misspellings and whatnot . That’s probably not a violation of someone’s copyright, but I totally stole that graphic of Facebook being more popular than Jesus through Google Images. So yeah… I’m a pirate… shiver me timbers.
So last night was the Oscar‘s. So here are some bullets to make you happy on this fine Monday morning:
• Of course I’m writing this post BEFORE the Oscar’s actually happen… but rumor has it the winner’s list was leaked with Kate Winslet winning Best Actress and Slum Dog Millionaire winning Best Picture. Personally, I can deal with Kate winning… but not Slum Dog Millionaire. Sure it was a touching story, but the whole flashback during current events vehicle has been done over and over. Two examples that pop into my mind were For Love Of The Game and Ladder 49.
• I’ve never seen reverse aging as a vehicle in such a well made film before… so The Curious Case of Benjamin Buttons better be the Best Picture winner. If not… I may need to cut Oscar.
• Poppy and I got to go see Kevin Smith live at one of his Q&A sessions. This Q&A was rescheduled from last May… and they rescheduled it for Oscar weekend. I guess Kevin didn’t plan on taking one home this year. He only talked for 3 hours and 56 minutes this time, which is about 2 and a half hours shorter than the last time I saw him live. He was however still funny as hell, irreverent as ever, and actually got to answer more questions this time around.
• A quote from the movie Bloodsucking Freaks, ”Her mouth will make an interesting urinal.” Has been stuck in my head since Kevin Smith mentioned it Saturday night. Now I have a serious desire to see this movie. If you have ever doubted word of mouth marketing before… the fact I’ll probably drop $9.99 on a copy of what will probably be the most horrible movie I’ll ever see is proof that it does indeed work.
• Tonight is another edition of our TalkCast Lick. Slam. Suck. and we’re going to be talking specifically about lodging and transportation. Future shows will include modern daytime events/activities to check out, some more info on TequilaCon itself once the venue gets announced, and I hinted about something in particular coming in a future show based on something I got last week. There is a hint as to what that is on my photoblog.
In classic LeSombre fashion, I’m keeping the last bullet for myself in case Cthulhu comes for me.
I’m sure that if you watch television you have seen how the corporate monger Burger King is spreading their corporate poison in unsuspecting under developed countries and villages through their ”Whopper© Virgins” series. Everyone is well aware of the predatory nature of the corporate mongers on unsuspecting people when they are promoting their goods so it isn’t surprising or even newsworthy at this point.
However fair is fair and Burger King has really come up with something spectacularly fresh and I must give them the accolades they are due for it. If you are a Facebook user (which as I pointed out yesterday there are 150 million of them) then you have an opportunity to do both some social networking cleaning AND get a free Whopper©. Going directly against the trend of ”add me”, ”follow me”, and ”friend me” with a new gimmick that will surprise and amaze you in both its simplicity and its novelty.
The gimmick is called Whopper© Sacrifice. The twist is that it is a Facebook app that will reward you with a free Whopper© if you “sacrifice” a measly 10 friends. How do you “sacrifice” your friends? Following the 3 steps instructed in the app, you remove them as one of your friends and then notify them (even though Facebook says they will not be notified, they are!) through the app that while you may like them… you love the Whopper©! Who else would reward you for actually getting rid of friends… who in reality are probably not friends at all!
Of course, gratification is not instant. Once you sacrifice your 10 friends the app takes you to a web form to fill out so they can mail you a coupon… and there is a limit of only one coupon per person no matter how many friends you offer up to the fires of broiling…
Yes… I sacrificed Cereal Wednesday for a 760 calorie Whopper with Cheese. Man cannot live on cereal alone dammit!
They better not charge me extra for the cheese.
So Tori (soon to be here) sent me this link which is a story about a new service utilizing Twitter as a delivery device.
Now I know what you’re all thinking… What, another thing for Twitter? … because I thought it too. It seems like Twitter has been getting all of the hype. Maybe it’s because of Barack Obama being there. Perhaps it’s because Rick Sanchez has a Twitter feed on the bottom of his newscast. Possibly it’s because Greg Grunberg is getting ready to dish secrets to the new episodes of Heroes. Potentially it’s because even though Dell continues to have a customer service and Twitter service that equates to ODYSSEY FAIL, Comcast has superb Twitter service. Or maybe… maybe… it’s just a whole lot of hype.
Kind of like the mythical ”power of mommy bloggers”, it seems to me that Twitter‘s influence is a bit exaggerated. Let’s assume that Twitter has 7 Million users as per this prediction (because the numbers are up for debate considering they don’t make the numbers public) and they are active in either tweeting themselves or reading the tweets. Now compare that to Facebook with their 150 Million actual active users, which is approximately 21 Facebook users for every 1 Twitter user. I know what the so called Social Media Experts and New Media Gurus are going to say… Twitter’s Public Timeline is what makes it so attractive as a ”social media engine” over Facebook Friendships because it’s all public. I assess that is not so… because assuming every user on Twitter sends one single tweet in the course of 24 hours, the Timeline would need 81 spaces to show them all… and it only has 20 leaving 61 tweets unseen. Twitter is, at best, a really large and public chatroom where you need to either work at building relationships or as one more tool you can use to maintain the ones you already have.
Now I freely admit that I use Twitter and am not trying to put the actual service down in any way. In fact it appears that December was my busiest month Tweeting according to my TweetStats. I think it definitely has its usefulness on the internet today and there is definitive value in it depending on your own goals and expectations that you place on it. So when something like Twadio comes along, I seriously have to ask WTF?
What Twadio does is send a Tweet message with the name of a song and the artist, and it’s up to you to play the song in your head. It’s the use of a ”simple suggestive power” to play the song. It’s kind of like subliminal messaging but overtly and done by you opting in. Now if for some reason you aren’t hip enough and don’t actually know the song, then you can just click on the link where a snippet will not only play for you but where you can purchase an MP3 of the song through Amazon. Now I do have to give them credit here because right off the bat they’re looking to monetize through affiliate sales through Amazon, which is more than I can say for Twitter themselves. Still, I have two distinct issues with this type of “service”.
First, one of the great things about Twitter is its mobility. You don’t need to have the newest Blackberry or even a beloved iPhone to be able to use Twitter. I can utilize Twitter from my Nextel iDen 335 if I want. However, I cannot access Twadio using it. So if there is a song I don’t know that they tweet, which seeing as how I think there is a majority of Twitter users who just by the nature of being early adopters own an iPod or another MP3 player and therefore do not necessarily listen to the radio as much increasing the likelihood of not knowing a song, I can’t do a damn thing about it.
Secondly, and to me what seems more important, is that they really aren’t contributing any original content. All they are doing is spitting out an artist and a song name in what is (as of this writing) 15 minute intervals. Where is the original content? It appears to be suspiciously absent from their tweets at Tweejay. That is a tweet stream of nothing but worthless noise to me at a time when I am expected to be doing more with less and trying to be more efficient with every single second of the day.
If I really wanted to waste my time, I would not spend it thinking of imaginary twunes… I would spend it watching this podcast over and over again.
Seriously.
Today, January 6, is the Western Christian celebration of the Epiphany… also known as Little Christmas or Three Kings Day. It is the day of celebration when the Wise Men (or Magi depending on the interpretation) come upon the infant Joshua (or Jesus if you are a bible beating literalistic) in the manger, and gift upon him gold, frankincense, and mir.
This is the official end of the Christmas Season. Can I get an amen?
The next big event, at least for those of us in the United States, will be the inauguration of Barack Obama as President of the United States in a mere 14 days. The inauguration is apparently more enthralling than the luring soft glow of electric sex in the window. I keep hearing about these insane amounts being paid for rooms, views, and tickets to balls. $5k, $10k, and $100k are all being thrown out there. So now I have to ask… just exactly WHO is able to pay those prices?
Is it Ford, Chrysler, or General Motors? Is it the AIG Executives? The Saudis? Who can afford those types of prices?
I know who can’t. The average American. Not even the baby Joshua would be able to afford it given the current prices of gold, frankincense, and mir! That’s who can’t afford that type of price. Now THAT’S an epiphany.
Yeah… change… any day now… any day…
