The Internet and Copyright in Japanese Pop-culture

Manga is a piece of Japan's heart.  I'm not even kidding.  It's practically referenced everywhere.  It's a part of Japan's history, present, and future.

And in recent years, Japanese pop-culture has come to America.  Animations and graphic novels made in America use the manga or anime style.

But then you have the stuff that originated in Japan, and the large numbers of people reading Japanese-born manga online.

Since most of Japan's manga have not been published in America, and most avid readers can't read Japanese, readers have gathered to form multiple communities for the sole purpose of translating manga into (for the most part) English.

These groups of people involve translators and editors (people who are skilled in photoshop and can remove Japanese text, edit the coloring to make it look like the original printed version, and place the English translation into speech bubbles).  Manga online is often referred to as "scanlations".

What these communities are doing is technically illegal, but no one really tries to stop them until a Japanese manga has been serialized and about to be published in America.

Now if American publishers were to shut down these sites, thousands of readers would be pissed (myself included).  Manga in America is over a year behind it's original Japanese counterpart.  Whereas, online scanlations edit, translate, and release chapters the day after it has been released in Japan.  Much, much faster.

Therefore, many scanlator communities and publishers have reached an agreement: once a new volume has been published in America, the scanlators take down the related chapters in that volume from their site.

CD's to MP3's

The article "Music in the Age of Free Distribution:  MP3 and Society" also mentioned that CD's reproduce sound using bumps and grooves, but the MP3 is purely digital.  That means the CD had both bumps and grooves and the ability to reproduce sound digitally even before the MP3 player was invented.

Unless the world had a secret MP3 we didn't even know about when the walkman and CD's came out.

Could've been a business tactic.  Make people buy the walkman, but have the MP3 player stored in mass security, then release it so people buy that too.

Bumps and grooves from music boxes to CD's

CD's according to the article we read for today, "Music in the Age of Free Distribution:  MP3 and Society", mentioned that CD's and older formats of music reproduction produced sound using bumps and grooves.

The first thing I thought of was something not mentioned in the article that used this method:  music boxes. My mom is a fan of antique's, and she once showed me how music boxes produced sound.  There are little holes in music boxes placed at increments that would produce sound.  The closer the holes are to each other, the more sound that is produced faster (like eighth or sixteenth notes).

Magic keyboards that play music on its own when you put a coin in also uses this method.

DRM of iTunes

I did some research on DRM (Digital Rights Management) in iTunes songs.  I managed to find the iTunes terms of agreement and found the part about DRM.

It made sense for a while, but now I'm all confused again....I read something about iTunes downloaded songs being allowed on 5 computers and 20 devices, then there was something else about unlimited amount of devices and 5 computers...damn iTunes make up your mind!


Then I asked my sister what she thought it was, and she said it was that you can only have your account on a certain number of computers...

So is DRM linked to accounts or songs? :[


Look here if you wanna try to figure it out.

What I learned about Disney

Disney is great and all, but it's really starting to get a bit grabby.

1) Disney succeeded in increasing the copyright law to life of the author plus 70 years (to protect Mickey Mouse and Co. from falling into the public domain in '05).  How do we know they won't do it again in 2025?  They're gonna keep increasing the copyright law and making it harder for the creation of derivative works of every single thing under copyright.

2) Disney has started buying out everything...they've bought the muppets...Marvel....I remember when they bought Marvel...Marvel fans were freaking out that all their favorite comic movies will become frilly and cute...good thing that hasn't happened yet.


At some point you've got to think, Disney, don't you have enough?  I love you and all, but your acting like a 2 year old in the "mine" phase...

Copyright over the years

I wrote a whole paper on copyright for my English class last term.  So I did a fair amount of research over copyright throughout history.

If anyone has noticed, the copyright term has increased drastically over the last few decades.  Disney, in fact, started before copyright.  He created Steamboat Willie off of Keaton's Steamboat Bill, Jr.  And that is how Mickey Mouse was born, and, in fact, the whole Disney corporation.  What Disney did at the time was not illegal, because there was no copyright law.

Now, the copyright law can last the life expectancy of the author and 70 years.  So that could very well be over 100 years until something is in the public domain (and by then it could just fall off the face of the earth).  If you wanted to use works under copyright, you'd have to ask permission (good luck with that!)

Thankfully, the rise of the Internet also brought about an addition to copyright, called Creative Commons.  Someone can put the CC license on their works, making their works copyrighted, but also allows for someone to use content from it as long as they give credit.

Blog Prompt #4: Internet Filters, Yeah or Neah?

I remember when I was in high school, and a lot of students loathed the Internet filters.  They couldn't do what they went, go on social communities, surf the net, etc.

Looking back on it, however, I feel that filters are necessary in a school environment.  You don't want a student to be on a disturbing site, because everyone else around them is exposed to the site.  It also keeps students from being distracted in class.  They are forced to pay attention because Facebook is blocked.

Also, parents don't have to worry about their child using the Internet for unapproved purposes.  Since every student is under the same filter, all parents are appeased that their child will be safe from the dangers of the web in school (parents can just personalize their own computers' filters to protect their child at home).

Therefore, I approve of filters on school computers.  Kids can just keep complaining about it; nothing's gonna change! >:D