Culture

Instructor: Matthew Ward

Mentor: Dr. Lucas Hilderbrand

UTeach Spring 2009

COPYRIGHT, CENSORSHIP AND PRIVACY

Objectives: Comprehend copyright laws and regulations in

relation to new media. Understand the dilemmas with censorship on the

Internet. Think about what we consider to be publicly

private.

LAZY SUNDAY SNL Digital Short

http://www.hulu.com/watch/1397/saturday-night-live-snl-digital-short-lazy-sunday

Aired on December 17, 2005 on SNL Starring Chris Parnell and Andy Samberg

Multiply versions; one viewed over 5 million times NBC asked to remove it, YouTube agreed

“We know how popular that video is, but YouTube respects the rights of copyright holders.”

October 2007, NBC along with News Corp. introduce Hulu.com

COPYRIGHT LAWS AND REGULATIONS

Copyright Infringement Intellectual Property Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)

Illegal to attempt to break the copyright protection chips and codes, “antipiracy devices”

Internet service providers expected to remove sites that violate DMCA terms

Napster Case

YOUTOMB.COM Research project by MIT Free Culture

http://youtomb.mit.edu/ Tracks videos taken down from YouTube for alleged

copyright violation GOAL: Identify how YouTube recognizes potential

copyright violations and aggregate mistakes made by algorithm

FILE-SHARING MP3s (audio and video)

Near perfect digital copy made and stored on computer, then distribute to anyone (p2p)

Music/Film&TV industry’s fears of losing sales due to unauthorized copies

June 2005, U.S. Court of Appeals overturned FCC’s rule, “broadcast flag” provision

ETHICS AND STANDARDS Vivendi

Negotiated licensing deals for music videos Permission from record label

Lip-sync videos must obtain permission of publishers who represent the song’s writers; potential lawsuit

VIACOM VS. GOOGLE November 13, 2006 – Google purchased YouTube.com for $1.65

billion in stock March 13, 2007 – Viacom filed a lawsuit seeking $1 billion in

damages Countered under the “safe harbor” provision of DMCA More conscientious toward copyright holders

Automated take-down tool 10-minute limit on videos User breaks rules 3 times, account cancelled Anti-piracy software

“Hashing” “Acoustic Fingerprints”

CENSORSHIP ON THE INTERNET 1ST Amendment Rights

Self-expression Pornography

Challenge to locate and eliminate clips of explicit nature Flagging

YouTube Policy Flag questionable content Not interested in being a site known for adult entertainment

PornoTube XTube

No Users under 13 13 to 17 encouraged to ask for parental guidance

Verification page

PRIVACY ISSUES “Star Wars Kid”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPPj6viIBmU Added Star Wars music and lightsaber lights and sounds Internet Meme

Television spoofs July 2003, harassment lawsuit against family of students, which later

reached an out-of-court settlement “Happy Slapping”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLnC3CXze2A Accomplice records the assault of an unsuspecting victim Slapped Being beaten

Perpetrators are usually young males Attacker makes the assault look like play

RICHARDS SPEW RACIAL HATE Michael Richards taped

spewing racial epithets when African-American audience members heckled his performance Viewed 470,000 times Acknowledged his actions and

subsequently apologized publicly

VIDEO ASSIGNMENT 1 Find a video that can easily be deemed as

copyright infringement. Questions to consider:

What is it a violation of the issue of intellectual privacy?

How did you come upon this video?

VIDEO ASSIGNMENT 2 Find a video that requires the user to verify

their age before viewing the content. Questions to consider:

What questionable material in the video requires the user to verify their age?

What are your thoughts on the simple age verification page?

VIDEO ASSIGNMENT 3 Find a video that violates a person’s privacy

rights. Questions to consider:

Are the subject’s personal rights and freedoms being violated?

What promoted the video to record them? What purpose does it serve when broadcasted on

the Internet?