IP and remix

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 15:13:57 GMT

Behind the cut are some links to videos and a few other bits and pieces about IP and remix, just so you can see the kind of stuff I'm marinating in.

The Public Domain: Enclosing the Commons of the Mind by James Boyle. Fascinating online book about IP and how and why it's breaking.
Good Copy Bad Copy: A documentary about the current state of copyright and culture, directed by Andreas Johnsen, Ralf Christensen and Henrik Moltke. A really interesting (although sadly male-focused) 2007 documentary which was recommended to me by several people. It paints such a powerful picture of how vibrant remix is, and how stagnant the TPTB anti-piracy doctrine is.
Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Online Video by AUSoC Centre for Social Media. With the failure of IP law to meaningfully engage with real-world practice, community bodies are creating codes of practice such as this one.
Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants: Part 1, Part 2 by Marc Prensky. An influential academic paper on why the net generation are different to the generations before, and why they aren't going to suddenly respect the old ways of doing things.
Open Source Activity Map by redhat. Just what the name says, colour-coding regions by their activity in contributing opensource stuff. Australia ranks fourth in the world for activity. I would not be at all surprised if other forms of remix culture rate at similarly high levels. If any of you know of research on this, I'd love a link.
WolframAlpha: Computational Knowledge Engine. This is the future. Awesome.

The Future of IP

Fri, 22 May 2009 07:03:23 GMT

I'm finding the current Pirate Bay case fascinating. The swirl of issues surrounding the conflict between established IP laws and the actual online practices of digital natives have come to a head in this case. And it's pointing up more clearly than ever how poorly the established power monopolies understand digital practices -- the tighter they squeeze, the more PR ground they lose. The long-term outcome for IP still isn't clear, but the fight is no longer the David and Goliath showdown it used to be: billions of dollars on one side, and millions of net-savvy users on the other.

A Little Compromised, by Stan Schroeder, June 5th 2008, on Mashable.

If File Sharing is a Crime, We’re All Criminals, by Stan Schroeder, February 18th 2009, on Mashable.

Swedish Pirate Party Doubles in Size After Bay Verdict, by Wired Staff, April 22 2009, on Wired.

Pirate Bay Founder Devises DDo$ Attack, by BP TEAM, May 10 2009, on Blog Pirate.

Pirate Bay Bias Charge: ‘Random’ Judge Assignment Wasn’t, by David Kravets and Kerstin Sjoden, May 15 2009, on Wired.

Artists Don’t Want Pirate Fans to be Disconnected by Ernesto, on May 18 2009, on TorrentFreak.

Record Labels Increase Legal Pressure on Pirate Bay, by enigmax, on May 19 2009, on TorrentFreak.

Biased Pirate Bay Judge Judged by More Biased Judges, by Ernesto on May 20 2009, on TorrentFreak.

My web stuff

Mon, 18 May 2009 05:26:14 GMT

I'm trying out a lot of Web 2.0 apps for work at the moment, so I thought I'd link to some of them here.

How to Write an Essay by Cathy Cupitt

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 07:29:34 GMT

This guide is like a recipe: it gives a basic set of instructions which will help you write a sound essay. Once you’re familiar with the formula, you can alter it to suit your own writing style and discipline of study.

1. Understand your topic

Underline the key words in your question, and look for published essays which discuss those specific issues. For example (these are both questions from previous UWA English units):

Question: "Deception and self-deception lies at the heart of Shakespeare's tragedies."

Your answer must discuss both deception and self-deception in at least two of Shakespeare's tragedies (as the word "tragedy" is in the plural).

You should also argue whether such deception is merely present, or whether it is at the "heart".

Question: "The modern woman's quest for emancipation in contemporary Australian literature is shown to have been a failure.”

Your answer must consider sexism in relation to least one woman in an Australian text.

You must argue either: yes, sexual emancipation has been a failure for that woman; no, she's been successful; or some kind of middle ground, such as it's too hard to tell if emancipation is a failure for this woman, as it's an issue larger than any one woman can face alone.

2. Decide on your main argument

Before you start writing, know the main idea of your answer to the essay question. This main idea will become your thesis statement. You should also have in mind between two and five points which support your thesis. For example:

Thesis statement -- the concept of women's emancipation is too fraught to apply to any one woman in terms of success or failure.

Points supporting this --
In Garner's The Children's Bach, Athena's 'search' for freedom reveals the exact nature of her domestic imprisonment to the reader, as well as the complexity of consequences of any kind of external escape. Her 'homecoming' reveals the capacity for a redefinition of her traditional role, and the limits of such a redefinition.

Grenville's Joan Makes History also makes use of the motifs of 'the search' and 'the homecoming' in order to explore these ideas of the gender type-casting of occupations and how they are valued, and the achievement of women's emancipation through increasing their options, rather than through some idealised total freedom from patriarchy.

You don't have to be able to express the ideas in this kind of language straight away, but you should have the general sense of your thesis in mind.

3. Create a plan

Outline the main points you intend to make, and check you will hit the word limit. For example, for a 2,000 word paper:

Title
Introduction (200 words)
outline the question you’re addressing, and which primary texts you’re discussing
define any key terms that need clarifying (make sure such definitions are directly relevant to your discussion -- you should refer to them again later in the essay)
give your thesis statement
give an outline of the main topics you will discuss in your argument

First Topic (500 words)
link the First Topic to your thesis statement so it’s clear how it supports your argument
give an overview of what other critics have said about the topic
give your own opinion, and relate it back to what the critics said
give evidence from the primary text to support the points you made
finish up by reminding the reader how the First Topic supports your thesis statement; and then make a link to the next topic

Second Topic (500 words)
Third Topic (500 words)
Conclusion (200 words)
restate your thesis
give a summary of the topics you raised
sum up how the essay has proven your argument

Total words: 1,900.
You have some leeway to add a few sentences during re-writing.

4. Write the essay; revise the essay

The main thing to remember when writing is that you won't get the essay completely right in the first draft. To get top marks, you will need to revise, spellcheck and proof the essay.

* * *

Technical Hints

Thesis statements

A thesis statement is usually your most important point expressed as a single sentence.

It should give your own opinion.
It should be debatable (as opposed to a statement of fact).
It should be the core of your argument.
You should repeat variations of it in at least three places within the essay (this helps the reader follow your argument): the introduction; the main discussion; and the conclusion.
You should be able to support it with both primary evidence (quotes from the novel/play/poem/film you are studying), and secondary evidence (what other critics have said).

Examples of thesis statements:

Shakespearean tragedies can be generically defined through acts of deception.

In Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle, black humour has three primary uses: entertainment; furthering the novel's themes; and raising self-awareness in readers.

In "The Nun's Priest's Tale" Chaucer tests the bounds of his chosen genre -- in this case the beast fable.

Desire -- particularly images of desire, or desire of images -- motivates the narrative of Blade Runner.

The Arthurian Cycle can be read as propaganda -- specifically class stratified patriarchal propaganda.

The Argument
You are trying to prove your thesis statement, so your essay should contain discussion and evidence that convinces the reader that you have made a good case. At university, you are also trying to show to the marker that you've read and understood several sources of information. For these reasons, your argument should ideally follow this pattern:

give an overview of what other critics have said about the topic (this shows the marker you've read and understood published essays in the discipline)
give your own opinion, and relate it back to what the critics said (this shows the marker you have ideas of your own)
give evidence (examples, quotes) from the primary text to support the points you make (this shows you understand the text)
repeat for each text/topic you discuss.

Paragraphs

Paragraphs are the building blocks of your argument. They ideally consist of:

a topic sentence introducing an idea (which supports the thesis statement)
further sentences which develop the idea
examples or supporting evidence (quotes from primary or secondary sources)
a discussion linking the specific example to the idea in the topic sentence
a linking sentence which shows how this idea is connected to that of the next paragraph.

For example:

[1. Topic sentence:] Women's traditional roles are often group ones (for example being a parent requires at least a parent and a child), in which the glorification of a single individual negates the participation of others. [2. Development of the idea:] This means that women's roles don't fit into the heroic, individualistic definition of what constitutes history. In fact, the idea that only "heroes" are valuable is not particularly useful to women living/performing traditional roles, and perhaps even exacts a high price, as it enables the devaluation of women's work. [3. Example:] After all, what is there to glorify in changing nappies or washing socks? [4. Linking the example back to the idea of women's disempowerment:] The jobs may be important, but they are repetitive and mundane, and anyone can do them if they have to; there is nothing individualistic or "special" about them.

[5. In this case, the linking sentence to the new topic is at the start of the next paragraph:] Grenville offers the reader two critical responses to this hero-centric notion of history (adapted from Cupitt, "Is There a Price to Pay for Every Damn Thing?").

* * *

An example student essay:

"Is There a Price to Pay for Every Damn Thing?" The High Price of Freedom for Women in The Children's Bach and Joan Makes History, by Cathy Cupitt.

You might want to critique it, considering what was done well, and how it could be improved.

* * *

cathy_cupitt

IP and remix

The Future of IP

My web stuff

How to Write an Essay by Cathy Cupitt

Technical Hints