Film Piracy Online

Today it is harder to find a store or someone on the streets selling pirated movies. Many of these people who sell pirated movies are now turning to the internet. Shari C. Hyman, director of the mayor’s office of special enforcement, tried to buy pirated movies on the streets of New York. Turns out that illegal DVDs were virtually nowhere to be found. Unfortunately, one women came out with the illegal DVDs stuffed in her jacket.

Hyman was happy to see the woman come out, because it gave her a reason to bust her for piracy. "Since December 2003, when Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg started an initiative to stem the trade in bootlegged and counterfeit goods, Ms. Hyman has “seen a huge decrease in illegal DVDs being sold in buildings.” In a February sweep, the organization checked out three buildings and 32 storefronts for bootlegged DVDs, and found none."

May people who pirate these movies go to the theaters and record them on their phones or some fancy small video camera. It is becoming difficult to catch these people, but the Entertainment Merchants Association industry employs monitors who use night-vision equipment to see pirates in action, and theater owners pay employees up to $500 for catching a surreptitious recorder in the act.

Piracy will never go away; however the movie industry is advertising on how wrong and illegal it is. If you get caught purchasing pirated material over the internet, you could face some serious charges as well as the seller.

My question to you is, should it be fare for people to sell movies through the internet other than the entertainment industry? i believe that people should not pirate movies or music in order to get a quick buck. Music and movies should be sold by the entertainment industry only or some other store such as Blockbuster, who get their movies legally.

Fake Authors

The "All My Children" character, Kendall Hart, is played by the actress Alicia Minshew, wrote a fictional book called "Charm". This book was on the ABC soap opera for quite some time.

ABC decides to put this book out there in public bookstores for the real people. However, the true author of the book is not mentioned, the character Hart has her name on the cover as the writer. “Charm” was published by Hyperion, which like its sister company that owns “All My Children,” Disney-ABC Television Group, is a Disney property. It has sold more than 100,000 copies and made its debut in February at No. 13 on the New York Times best-seller list. THe book will be on sale in Sears stores nationwide beginning April 14.

According to Sara Nelson, the editor in chief of Publishers Weekly, “Since there seems to be a blurring of lines between fiction and reality on TV, in books, in politics even, it stands to reason that a fictional character could write a book that actually gets published. It strikes me as one of those ideas that’s so bad it’s good.”

I believe that this type of writing is a way to draw people to watch soap operas. Whether it is from a fictious character or not, the book reflects on the stories of the show.

My question to you is do you think this kind of writing is right or wrong for the public? I say, it's right as long as people know the difference between fiction and reality.

Marketing Campaigns Going Public

Toyota Scion, a vehicle more geared to the young and young at heart is doing something completely different in the media field. They are letting consumers pick their own logos for their Scion's and voicing their opinion on a social networking on their website. It is a site where people could communicate about their vehicles; almost like Facebook or Myspace.

In the article it stated, "The Scion is an economy car aimed at younger, stylish drivers, and the design Web site, scionspeak.com, is free. But Scion enthusiasts must pay for the auto shop renderings of their design, an indulgence that can cost thousands of dollars."

Many consumer brands have been trying ti figure out where they can fit in to the social networking on the Internet. Now they found a way by creating their own websites and helps promote their products.

Social networking for brand marketers “is all very unexplored territory,” said Jim Nail, the chief strategy and marketing officer of Cymfony, a unit of TNS Media Intelligence, in Boston. “These places have been for individuals to connect with one another, and brands have been relatively absent. But the benefit of it is having that very intimate direct conversation with customers.”

My question to you, is this the future for advertising?

I believe that this is the future for advertising, it is way to take ideas from the public in a legal way. Many consumers are always looking for some great input on the products purchased from the general public. These type of websites are a great tool for people to communicate and connect.

Print Archives Easily Accessible Through The Web

Many newspapers offer the opportunity to search their archives through their websites. However, they require a fee, but some are turning away from the fee and letting people search them for free.

Sports Illustrated, who is in competition with ESPN, Yahoo Sports, and others are streaming into the digital world by putting their archives on the Web. "On Thursday, the magazine will introduce the Vault, a free site within SI.com that contains all the words Sports Illustrated has ever published and many of the images, along with video and other material, in a searchable database. "

Putting these archives on the Web will increase people to read their articles. The print industry is always looking for more material, but their archives on the Web will atract more readers.

My question to you is do you think that having archives from print transfered onto the Web to search is a great thing for the print industry?

I believe it is, because it definetly will atract more readers and it will be great for students everywhere who need to search for such articles and pictures for schoolwork and fun.

Citizen Journalism

Citizen journalism is a term refering to regular people reporting news in their own communities on the Internet. “We are uncomfortable with the term ‘citizen journalism,’ ” said Todd Wolfson, 35, a doctoral candidate at the University of Pennsylvania and one of the organizers of the Media Mobilizing Project in Philadelphia. “We prefer the term ‘community journalism.’ ”

The Knight Foundation in Miami promotes free classes to immigrants for news reporting. It is funded through thier grants program. These classes are experimental for the digital world.

Some American citizens are upset that immigrants recieve free classes such as these, when Americans have to pay for them.

I believe that this type of class is way for immigrants to see our culture and view the differences and similarities between their culture and ours. it is a great learning experience for them. it gets them to speak our language and learn our way of living. Maybe one day the program can be for not only immigrants, but for low income people who want to have a future.

Audio Books Are Ready For Downloading

Audio books are becoming more popular everyday and now they are becoming available to download like music on MP3 players.

Some of the largetst publishers are stripping away the anticopying software on digital downloads of audio books. This will allow the public to download audio books to devices such as computers, ipods, and cellphones.

This is new for publishers, but not new in the music industry. Publishers are being careful of what they put out there and they are not going to make the same mistakes as the music industry. Publishers don't want to face piracy problems like the music industry. In order for them to do that they are going to make the audio books available in many online stores for downlaods. This will prevent the piracy problem that the music industry faces everyday.

I believe that this is the future for books. It will allow people to not have to cary heavy loads of books around with them and it would be easily accessible.

Newspaper Blogs Strike In Honolulu

Writers often take breaks from the traditional newspaper writing and post blogs. It is common for a writer to post a blog, but to go on a strike is rare.

Reporters in The Honolulu Advertiser, one of the biggest newspapers in Hawaii post blogs on a daily basis. When they received a new contract of posting their names on their blogs they went on strike. The strike forced them to give them a new contract stating that they do not have to post their names on their blogs.

Mark Platte, the paper’s editor, said that the blog blackout was within the reporters’ rights. They “have to write for print — that’s part of their jobs — but blogs are voluntary,” he said.

I believe almost every writer out there post blogs, but they are rarely in a union such as in The Honolulu Advertiser. For the writers to respond of the new contract with a strike was a smart move on their part. I'm happy that it wasn't a strike like the Hollywood writers.