TOPIC 1: FIRST AMENDMENT, COPYRIGHT AND FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION -- After watching the documentary "RiP! A Remix Manifesto," share what you know or have learned about the First Amendment, copyright and freedom of expression. One of the trade-offs of having the First Amendment is that some people push their rights of free expression to the limits, whether it's hounding celebrities for tabloid photos, publicizing extreme points of view, or demonstrating in the manner of the Westboro Baptist Church.
I honestly do not know enough about the first amendment. This should be a lesson for me to learn more about it. The biggest thing that I learned through watching this video is that anyone can get in lots of trouble for downloading music.
I found most interesting is the people who got in trouble for downloading music. This is one of the examples that I am citing for the video. At one point in the video a bunch of people popped up on the screen, and they were talking about how much money they owed back. The thing that I did not understand is when the artists never seen a dime of the money. It's almost like they wouldn't even know what was going on in the court room. One point being brought up in the video is how are people going to get charged anywhere between $1,000.00 to $100,000.00 dollars per song when a CD only cost between $4.99- $12.99. The court systems are taking it to far. The point of people even downloading music is because they can't afford it. People will spend the rest of their life trying to pay it off. What about if a ten year old child downloads music in a house? Who gets in trouble? The kid or the parent? People go to far when it comes to money. People are way too greedy. The video brought up a lot of things that I did not know. I would hope that I would never get in trouble or anyone that I know. One other thing was an artist towards the end of the video. I can't exactly put my brain on the artist. It was about someone downloading their music. Another company sent him a threatening letter. But, the artist gave free rights to anyone who wanted to download the music. I found this very interesting. Music is important to the mind, body, and soul. Music has the power to heal hearts. I think that it is wrong that people are abusing this. People have done some really messed up things, and is downloading music really one of them? Why come after the people who aren't doing bad things? The ones who are good, and who are not going out of their way to hurt another person. I also have plenty of friends who are DJ's, and it's crazy to think that they could get in trouble for what they do. Who wants to live in a society where music isn't free? It should be free.
The biggest question that I have would be if the cost will ever end? By this I mean the cost of the crime. I wonder if someone out there will make a end to the punishment when it comes to copyright. The video talked about how students get away with it by citing their sources in papers. The people with the power will just never understand what that kind of punishment will do to a good person nor will they care. But, someone out there probably does care. When will those people in the power position be on the side of the people who need the help.
I believe at this day in age that a politician who has went to far with freedom of speech would be our president. He has said some nasty things right from his tweeter account. Some people like that he was so forward. I do believe that there are lines that should not be crossed. Sometimes people do go to far, and he has went there many times. I have heard that he has been asked to back off of social media. I cannot name off the type of my head, but I do know that he has said nasty things even at protest. If I cannot say whatever I want, why should he get to? I don't think any actions should take place like laws, but I do think he needs to learn what empathy is. Sometimes his words are very sharp, and he has cut deep wounds. I do not perceive him as being a very nice person. I wish that we could meet in person, so I could understand who he really is. It's hard to trust anything that's out on the media. People have abused lies and honesty.
TOPIC 2: WIKILEAKS -- As you may know, WikiLeaks has been much in the news in recent years since it published thousands of classified documents related to the wars in Iraq/Afghanistan as well as emails related to the 2016 U.S. election between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.
I thought the video into Julian Assange was very insightful. I have heard about it before, and how Julian was in hide away for many years. I did not know anything about him even though I should have read into him before. I guess I was just too lazy, so I felt pretty grateful that all of this stuff was taught to the class. I think what he does is great, and I think it is something that should keep going on. The reason I think this is our government should not be keeping secrets from us. If a secret is being kept, the action should not be done. The example that I have for this is the video in Iraq. I thought to myself how wrong that was. The guys in the military during that video were laughing about what they did. Those are the type of people who should not be in our military. The types of people who are awaiting to murder another human. The ones who think it is funny to murder someone. Stuff like that should be for the public eye to see. The people deserve to see what type of people are running the country. They should know what the leaders are having other people do. It is not right, and that is how I feel about it. It is absolutely great what Julian did. We need more people who are willing to go out of their way to get the truth out. We need more people who are willing to lead by an example. In my eyes, he is a hero, and in a lot of other people's eyes he is the same. My friend and I were talking about Bradly Manning yesterday, and how he released everything to Julian. She said what he did was wrong. Her reason was not the actions itself, but rather the names that were exposed. She said he put people in harms way by doing that. I respected her opinion, and I understood where she was coming from. I also went through the emails of Hilary Clinton, but I did not really find anything that stood out to me. I did find an email that I found to do with Julian. I found the email rather threatening. Other than that I did not find anything that stood out to me. 
I don't feel like free speech exist in this country. I personally do not feel that this country is free, and I don't have examples to prove my point of view. This is how I feel though. I guess the one example that I can think of is that we have to be careful with what we say about the president. It could be an inappropriate joke of how much we dislike the president at the time. I just have always been taught not to say anything at all, so I did not get in trouble. I don't think that is fair. It's almost like the United States is created to for people to fail. We can get stuck into the debt that we owe. An example would be student debt. Students owe a lot once they are done with school. I think that they get stuck in one place. I am going into a different direction because the question is to do with what do I think of free speech. People can't say what they want on the internet because others have the ability to remove it if they do not like the content. That is not freedom of speech at all. We have to be careful with how we say things. I do admit that some people can be total jerks, and they should just be nice to others. Money is what buys everything, and it can even buy your privacy. It's bad when I can't decide if its because of money or if people actually are concerned about the safety of others. The thought is recently coming from a shooting that happened months ago. The person put on the internet that they would become a school shooter. Why did that not get censored? Or why was that not a concern of safety. It leads me to thinking that its just about money.
When it comes to the FCC, I thought it was so much BS. Many people said they did not want net neutrality to end, and they did not listen to us. That was such a big deal, but the higher up people did not care. Was it about money? I think so. I have heard that Oregon is not being affected by that, but I am not sure on that one. It's just not right that these people in power positions can just decide what they are going to do when others don't even want it. The majority of people do not have a say in decisions that will affect their life. Not to long after all of this was happening someone bought out Minet where I live. It was a horrible internet company, and I switched it. I don't remember who bought them out, but I was more than certain it had to do with the FCC. Sometimes, I get heavily into politics, and other times I choose to stay away from it. I get really heated, and this was one of the things that made me very mad. I wish the question was asked back than. Politics get stressful.
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