Creativity Protection For All

I have to agree with the need to keep copyrights (CR) and intellectual property (IP), but I have to disagree with the way they are being exploited by corporate America. After reading Lessig’s book I came away with, what seemed like to me, the plain and simple truth of the problem at hand. Copyrights and IP are just two more noble ideals headed down the tubes.

The original reason for having CR and IP, in the first place, was for the protection of an individuals’ original creation(s) for a defined length of time. (The catch phrase here is, “a defined length of time.”) As Lessig points out, it is in our very nature to build on what we have already seen, known, even experienced. It’s how we function as a society of social beings. It is the very reason that we have progressed to where we are today. Yet the deep pockets of corporate America have managed to put something as noble and well-intentioned as CR and IP into a choke hold for their own greedy purposes. He who has the most money has the most power and therefore makes all the decisions.

I agree with Lessig, this was not the intention of the framers when CR and IP were created. There has to be a set of checks and balances in the system for the original intention of CR and IP to work for the good of “ALL”. To protect the rights of the creators and to protect the rights of those who would (if allowed to) follow in their footsteps. By rebuilding, recreating, reinventing or just plain ole rearranging what we already know is, to continue to develop, to have a purpose. It’s who we are and how we function.

I’ve come away with a new point of view and a better understanding concerning copyrights and intellectual property as we move into the 21st century. I can’t say I’m thrilled about the idea now that I’m aware of Corporate America’s plan to control what originally would/could/should have been in “our” public domain.

Differences Between Search Engines

Following up on our discussion in class, Google doesn't have a monopoly on web indexing. The class has been tasked to compare and contrast the results of entering a common search word or phrase, like “let it be” with and without quotes, using three or more search engines.

By actually doing the research, my understanding into the workings of a typical search engine has been improved. I started this research by reading parts of Anatomy of a Search Engine from our list of suggested topics. I became interested in PageRanking and how some search engines use this method as a means of placing a website’s key words into a hierarchy. At first I thought I was getting off the track then realized this could be one of the possible “why or how” answer(s) to the question. In reading The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine document I found this passage, which explains the way PageRanking used in Google.

2. System Features
The Google search engine has two important features that help it produce high precision results. First, it makes use of the link structure of the Web to calculate a quality ranking for each web page. This ranking is called PageRank and is described in detail in [Page 98]. Second, Google utilizes link to improve search results.

2.1 PageRank: Bringing Order to the Web
The citation (link) graph of the web is an important resource that has largely gone unused in existing web search engines. We have created maps containing as many as 518 million of these hyperlinks, a significant sample of the total. These maps allow rapid calculation of a web page's "PageRank", an objective measure of its citation importance that corresponds well with people's subjective idea of importance. Because of this correspondence, PageRank is an excellent way to prioritize the results of web keyword searches. For most popular subjects, a simple text matching search that is restricted to web page titles performs admirably when PageRank prioritizes the results (demo available at google.stanford.edu). For the type of full text searches in the main Google system, PageRank also helps a great deal (Brin).
http://www-db.stanford.edu/~backrub/google.html

Now getting back basics of the assignment. The search engines I chose were Dogpile, Ask Jeeves, Mooter, and of course Google. The first three entries for Google, sans quotes, where LetsSingIt.com - Your lyrics engine on the Internet!, Amazon.com: Music: Let It Be... Naked and Let's Go. But once I placed the “ “ around the phrase ‘let it be’ the first three entries changed to; Let It Be Records - Enter, Amazon.com: Music: Let It Be [SOUNDTRACK] and albany waterfront park - let it be! Dogpile’s first three entries, sans quotes, followed this pattern; Let It Be Records - Enter, Rentamatic 10,000+ Letting Agents with Properties to Rent and >>> Landlords, Tenants, Letting Agents - Rental Property Resources -. Dogpile’s response with quotes appeared this way; Let It Be Records - Enter, The Reel Beatles: "Let It Be" and The Atlantic May 2003 Let It Be Rauch. Next up came Ask Jeeves’ results, first with sans quotes; Let It Be-www.ez-tracks.com, Let It Be-eBay.com and Let It Be-BizRate.com. Ask Jeeves again, with quotes, shows almost no difference at all until the third entry; Let It Be-www.ez-tracks.com, Let It Be-eBay.com and Let It Be-eBay.com. It was right about then this was getting a little too predicable and, like my teenage son says, boring. So on an off chance I decided to take one more pass at yet another search engine and selected Mooter. Using ‘let it be,’ sans quotes, with this search engine threw me a curve. I actually thought I had done something wrong and re-entered the query again, but came up with the same results both times, “HTTP Status 500 -.” Well that was a bit of a let down. Ok Mooter one more time, with quotes, and I could compile the results for the paper.

What a difference a search engine makes and what a concept…images in the round. I liked it! Plus you could even select your choice of Mooting colors in red or blue. My curiosity peeked and with a renewed spirit towards this project I pushed on. Finding the layout intriguing and wanting to see where these images would lead me, I surfed them all. At the center of the overall image was All Results, then starting at the top and reading right the categories where as follows: speaking words of wisdom let, band, beatles, find myself in, in my hour, album and in my. To sum up my research, not all search engines are created equal. While Google and others search engines may use PageRanking as a way to hierarchy key words to fill their requirements, if you really want to do an in-depth search, don’t limit yourself to only the more popular know search engines. The World Wide Web is indeed a big place and for those want to stretch their wings and fly…well, what better way can it be said…the sky’s the limit.

Hunting Elephants

Well, Saturday I woke up with my usual list of things to get done for the day. After going over that list I sat down at the computer to print out the class assignments. I had no trouble with Anne Fadiman or William Burroughs readings, but once I started trying to print the Melancholy Elephants I got missing page after missing page. I even sent an email to the professor letting her know of the problem just in case someone else was having trouble.

But Never say Never...I found a work around! I started by adding one '/" section after the other until I reached the main page. The only part of the given URL that was causing the problem was the "__1.htm" the last section. Once I reached the main page and found that several chapters were up for grabs I selected chapter One and POW the "Melancholy Elephants" appeared and printing them out was a breeze.

Of course that was the begining of how the day was to go. But hey that's life and you roll with the punches. For me, at this stage in my life, the alternative is not even an option. Takes too much time, energy and joy away.

To Blog or not to Blog

Judging from what I have seen/read of other blogs, a stream of conscience seems to be the choice of beginnings. If you find my blog site then send a comment and let me know. I'll just say thank you in advance!