File sharing and misicians rights

I don't really think file sharing is a bad thing. It is an offense to laws that are in place but I don't think that the goal of making music should be to make tons of money. For the small artists that make try to make a name for themselves a little pirating of their music can only hope to spread them and make them bigger names.

I've downloaded some music before from P2P networks like Kazaa and Limewire and never really though much of it. Most of the bands I downloaded are really well known and have been played tons of times. Recently I downloaded "Home, Home on the range." Songs like this have been played so many times that the originally artist isn't really the one gaining from the sale of it. Big companies, like Virgin Records, advertiser, like Yahoo, and distributors, like Apple, are. For those small struggling artists it is not the reality that can and always will be broken. I feel for those people but don't think they will be much worse off without my financial support. For those making great music must of them already have what they need to do it.

From a different prospective If had the talent to make music I would want it to be open source. I would want anyone to take keep it and give it to others. I think that music is going to be much the same way the Internet is in the future because the ethical practice of regulating music distribution is impractical. Advertisements will be all over free legitimate p2p systems. Artists will make their money based on how many downloads they get and everyone will make money. For virtual things like music movies the Internet and software their is no practical way to regulate their distribution.

To me the serious ethical dilemma is what kind of music we are being exposed to. Today most of the highest selling records all are totally shameless. Tons of rap songs and rock song don't hold any values that Americans should be proud of. So lets not get angry at people downloading songs illegally, lets mad at what kind of detrimental behavior they are endorsing when they do.

RFID

<- I also don't think everything needs RFID

But most of the time it wouldn't be a bad idea.

Honestly I never really though of RFID as a threat to my security or privacy until it was the topic in class. I never thought that RFID could be used as threat but after class I got a lot my nervous. I don't think that for the time being RFID will be used to track me but very soon it could.

IT was really funny because my friend from across the hall came over and some how without me mentioning it he started talking about. He said that once he went to the mall and every time he walked in or out of a store be would see the alarm off. He said he hadn't bought anything the whole time it was going on but he still set it off each time. The moral of this story is that RFID can at times be a hassle sometimes. I would thinks its kind of funny.

Every once in a while when I'm at the library the person checking me out doesn't get the book deactivated right and it goes off. For a library sometimes it can be the worsting thing that be put in but it makes sense. I've read that they are starting to replace bar codes but I could see it being useful because people can change the call number without un-shelving the book. I think that could make things great but really bar codes have worked for a long time and teaching people about these really isn't necessary especially in smaller libraries.

I don't think we will have anything as drastic a minority report but life will be less private if we want convinces like credit and spending cards. I'm reading a book called The Darwinian Left and it makes me think of all the problems that are clear as day with capitalism. I think it should be an option when people set up accounts to have ads show to you and have buying cards like with your name and things that are going.

For a while much of everything will stay the same. Everything has positives and negatives. RFID is one of those things and in my eyes will always be much more of a positive. I think putting one in a animal is a very smart thing and useful to help find their owner. On the other hand putting them in people kind of weird. Today I kind of questioned that though. I lost my OneCard and still haven't found it and have been thinking about having it in me so I could never lose it. I lose a lot of stuff and wouldn't having RFID just in case I lost stuff.

Heres what I mentioned in class about them replacing bar codes with RFID. I think it would be cool if they did. I've flown almost twice a year each year since I was 10 years old. I've gotten lucky and never lost a bag. Hopefully they will lose less of them once this technology is put into place.
http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/articleview/1949/1/1/

protection from surveillance

As for me personally there are few thing that I find personal. If some of my e-mails to my girl friends got into the wrong hands I just think whom ever got them would get a good laugh. I don't think its good that I might have e-mail and some information flowing around but am not personally very angry about things like this.
With such a big company like AT&T I could see something like this happening. If it weren't for private foundations like the EFF corporations like AT&T would do even more harm than they already have and I really think that is a scary thought.
On top of all this AT&T letting this go on allows the government to do terrorist profiling and detain honest citizens for long periods of time. Compared to Internet security, Internet privacy is so much harder to guard against. I think keep a close look on credit cards and checking accounts its hard to know who to and know not to trust and to even know where any of your information is being router. Right now I'm in the main San Francisco Public Library and I'm pretty sure this blog is going through AT&T's system some how. This isn't anything important and there really isn't anyway to get around using them to get my blog done and this is the really scary thing about the Internet and protection from surveillance.
I'd like to change a little how I use e-mail but its very to find out how. I never send my banking accounts and things like that but not send my girlfriend e-mail about us, stuff we talk about or political feelings I have. One of those political feelings is about this but I might get locked up if I mention it on my blog. Her an I do more normal postal mail than e-mails and we still plan to especially after knowing things like this. She says she likes postal mail more and that it "means more to actually write it out rather than type it" but I do it for the comfort of know her eyes are the only ones that look it.