Tuesday, September 25, 2012

DRM Means Safer Music Aquisition

    According to BBC News, Digital Rights Management, or DRM, is “a class of technologies that allow rights owners to set and enforce terms by which people use their intellectual property”.  DRM can be used to avoid copyright laws and to stop the issue of piracy with music and other types of media.  DRM helps copyright owners and controls who is able to access music and serves as a way to control how this work is shared among the public.  This ensures that people will not take advantage of artists’ work and download so many illegal files that artists’ sales, producers profits, and distributors profits begin to be affected.   Using DRM as a method of control for media is helpful to the consumers of mass media and music, and helps to go against the issues that companies have had in the past and still continue to have with illegal file sharing.  Using DRM also helps to protect from viruses that users might get when downloading illegal content. 
    DRM works in a variety of ways, but according to about.com and netforbeginners, there are four common stages to DRM which include packaging, distribution, license serving, and license acquisition.  Starting with packaging, the DRM encryption keys are built into the software or file.  Distribution is when the files are delivered to the customers, and license serving is where “specialized servers authenticate legitimate users through and Internet connection, and allow them to access the DRM files.”  Lastly, license acquisition is when encryption keys are acquired so the media files can be unlocked. As you can see, DRM uses a variety of techniques to distribute safe files to users, and encryption is a large part of it.
    To me and my downloads, DRM means that I have ways of getting the media I want in a safe manner.  Using P2P sharing is a method to obtaining free music via the Internet, without the risk of infringement and viruses.  Instead of using a client/server model, like Limewire, something like Bearshare or Gnutella is legal and not as risky.  It is important to think about the benefits of using P2P methods, because content owners, consumers and content service providers all benefit.  According to EZDRM, “Consumers can be confident that the digital media they receive is authentic material, and that they have acquired it in a legitimate manner.”  This way, the consumer can be ensured with legal file acquisition and content that will not get them into trouble. 

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Are social media and technology helping or hindering today's society?

         In today's technology-based society, it is natural not to realize the extent to which we use the Internet and other forms of media.  We are constantly checking our social media portals to see what is going on in the world with friends and family, and we are always using our cellphones, laptops, computers, iPods, iTouches, and iPhones throughout each day.  In an article titled "How Social Media is Ruining Your Mind" by Aaron Saenz, "Social media pushes its users into states of continued stimulus and communication, with a system that rewards obsessively-frequent checking and updating."  This notion of "obsessively checking and updating" is definitely true for me, and I'm sure other social media and technology users like myself can say the same.  In the Saenz article, it was mentioned that scientists have been looking how social media in today's world have been influencing people's multitasking skills, social interactions, and ability to focus.  All of these issues deal with interpersonal interaction and the way people behave. I believe that social media and technology are beginning to hinder these human skills and abilities, because of the constant need to be connected, and the failure to engage in normal human interaction. A UCLA study showed that just 5 hours of Internet surfing can change the way your brain works.  I'm sure all of us at least surf for a couple hours a day, especially a college student like myself, so imagine what a lifetime of Internet surfing can add up to.
        In an interesting book titled "Deciphering Cyberspace: Making the Most of Digital Communication Technology" Leonard Shyles investigates the impact of image based education, and information on the Web on children. "Such image-based education can easily lead to a shortened attention span among children, a situation already observed by many educators.  Television's main contribution to educational philosophy, according to Postman, is the notion that "teaching and entertainment are inseparable"(pg. 146).  It is apparent that we are changing the way we educate our youth with all of the new technologies and teaching methods that are rising in popularity.  Some of these methods are very helpful and interactive, but when it comes to causing cognitive and attention problems, rethinking the way we educate is in order.  "According to a study from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, attention problems in children ages 4-15 have increased from 1.4% in 1979 to 9.2% in 1996 (Kelleher, McInery, Gardner, Cilds, & Wasserman, 2000). " This concrete statistic shows just how much the growth of media has influenced these cognitive problems in the past few decades. 
      In an article from CNN "Is the Internet hurting children?" by Chelsea Clinton and James P. Steyer, they also discuss the impact of multimedia and the Internet on children. "While the research is still in its early stages, it suggests that the Internet may actually be changing how our brains work. Too much hypertext and multimedia content has been linked in some kids to limited attention span, lower comprehension, poor focus, greater risk for depression and diminished long-term memory."  All of these effects can cause major health problems, many of which cannot be reversed.  In order to test this shortened attention span as a result of media use, I would look to the students at University of Maryland, and middle and high schools in my hometown.  I would observe classrooms to see the number of people using computers, laptops, and cellphones being used, and I would also observe the teachers.  I would see how professors and teachers are educating their kids and the methods they are using, such as YouTube videos, Internet, and other forms of technology.  I would compare the classrooms where a lot of media is used versus not, and observe the kid's social interaction in another setting.  Cutting down on Internet and social media use or returning back to more traditional forms of educating and communicating is seen as a major debate as a result of these issues and research.