Trailer Ideas

For my project I'm focusing on Vlogging and I was thinking about actually setting up an account and doing my own vlog on this project and various other things. Obviously, I'll need to get the proper equipment, but I think that it would be a fun project to do and maybe vlogging will stick with me and I'll do it regularly. But, for my trailer, I was thinking of splicing various scenes from my favorite youtube vloggers so it sounds like they're talking about my project and they actually know me.

Lessig's "Remix"

When the reading started and I started reading about Sousa and how he had traveled to Washington to discuss the act of 'piracy' that was being committed with his records. All I thought of was how the majority of people illegally download music and videos all of the time. I think what most people don't realize is, when musicians, directors, actors, etc. make something and copyright it, they do gain money when someone purchases it. If you illegally download the music or movie or tv show, the person who made it is loosing money just so you can save money by not purchasing it. Most people tend to not think that the person who did copyright it, worked very hard on it and want to get reimburssed for their hardwork.

Lessig also talks about how Sousa complained about the 'technologies' that caused this piracy to occur. He spoke about how when he was younger you used to see various people singing and playing instruments. They didn't just sit in their homes and listen to a phonograph. They were outside and taking part in the live music. They were experiencing it instead of just merely listening to it.

These two articles we have read both seem to deal with the idea of plaigiarism. After reading both of these articles, you can really see that plaigiarism is not just dealing with writing papers. It can come in all forms, such as illegally downloading music or movies.

Response to "The Ecstasy of Influence"

Reading the section titled "Give All" in Letham's "The Ecstasy of Influence", was quite challenging. He makes his opinion on plagiarism known and he has several reasons for why he takes that stance. He says that the bulk of human material is plagiarism because no one really thinks up their own ideas. They all have to start somewhere, whether it was from a story that was read or from a song that was heard. No one truly thinks of any original. He refers to them as "second-hand" because they have all been ripped from other things whether it be consciously or subconsciously.


I think he takes this position on plagiarism because he is an author but then when you get to end of that section, he kind of contradicts what he just wrote about. He spent that entire section writing about how basically everything is plagiarized because it's not truly original and then he goes to say that we are free to take his ideas and stories because he wrote them for us. I'm just a bit confused on his stance and his reasoning because he does contradict himself there.


I'm not sure that I agree or that he convinced me. I think of things that no one else has thought of, granted, it may be helped by an idea that was already thought of, but my idea is completely my own and original to me. For example, if you take the idea of space travel in general, you can think of many different stories that are completely new and haven't been thought up yet. So, I'm not sure how he can honestly say that all ideas are not original.

He talks about writers in this section as being pulled in one direction because their works are being plagiarized and they don't even know. I'm not sure if this is true because I honestly had a hard time understanding his piece. I'm just not sure what he is trying to say since there are many sides to this but they are all coming from him.