Friend-Zoned With The Pirate Bay

April 4, 2014July 30, 2014 ~ jakepascoe ~ Leave a comment

You are in a constant friend-zone with The Pirate Bay. You just are. No matter how many gifts it gives you, or how many gifts you give other people through them. That’s how The Pirate Bay rolls, and it’s totally fine with it. For those of you that don’t understand my poor analogue, the way The Pirate Bay works, is that it works like a search engine. You find torrents that other people are seeding, and it allows you to download from them. The Pirate Bay just direct internet traffic to where it needs to be. And when you seed, it allows other people to download from you. And because of this, the audience, you, not only control The Pirate Bay, but provide the content and functionality behind the website. It would be nothing without you. And I think this is the very concept of Prosumption, being an active user and creating content. Unfortunately a lot of people have the mentality of an actual pirate when it comes to seeding.

The audience is crucial to The Pirate Bay’s success, and it’s downfall. It’s popularity around the internet has made it VERY popular world wide. Alexa, a web information company, ranked the website at 92nd world wide, and 80th just in America. That’s pretty amazing considering participating on this website makes you a criminal. The Pirate Bay relies on dialogic media, meaning that it facilities a two-way conversation for each torrent, and this is commonly known as a ‘comment section’. This allows the audience to talk about the material, give information and reviews. “You participate to contribute information” (Christopher Moore 2014)

“Building a tool that allows an ads-based business to get in front of more eyeballs is not politically relevant by itself, but it can contribute to a larger conversation about censorship, free speech, and Internet freedom.” (Nathaniel Mott 2013)

One of the main cultures that is associated with The Pirate Bay is the issue of copyright. Nathaniel Mott from Pando Daily points out that within the culture of censorship and internet freedom, it can be used as a “political tool” within context. And it’s interesting to know that on a deeper level, just by torrenting movies and tv shows, you’re fighting censorship and copyright laws. You may only be a speck of dust in a massive sand storm, but it all adds up. You can do so much by seeding. So start seeding!

References:

1. No Author 2014, thepiratebay.se, Alexa, Viewed 3rd April 2014 <http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/thepiratebay.se >

2. Moore Christopher 2014, ‘Audiences: Power, Access, and Participation’, Lecture Week 5, UOW, 1/04/2014

3. Mott Nathaniel 2013, ‘Is the Pirate Bay a bastion of internet freedom or just an illegal downloads site?’, Pando Daily, Viewed 3rd April 2014, <http://pando.com/2013/08/12/is-the-pirate-bay-a-bastion-of-internet-freedom-or-just-an-illegal-downloads-site/ >

Australia’s New Prime Minister: Rupert Murdoch

April 3, 2014July 30, 2014 ~ jakepascoe ~ 3 Comments

It’s common knowledge in Australia that one of the reasons Tony Abbot’s political campaign was so effective was because of the media. The powerful headlines such as “IT’S A RUDDY MESS” influenced much of Australia, and gave Tony Abbot and the Liberal party an almost too easy victory. And there’s two people to thank for that.

The more obvious person, Rupert Murdoch. Having an impressive resume including being the CEO of News Corporation, an Executive Chairman at News Corp, and more recently, the CEO of 21st Century Fox. He owns almost TOO many media outlets including ‘The Australian’, ‘The Daily Telegraph’, ‘Courier-Mail’, ‘The Herald Sun’ and FOX to name a few, all of which adds to 17.3 million newspapers in Australia a week. That’s a ridiculous amount of influence he has.

The second person responsible, is Col Allan, the editor-in-chief of the ‘New York Post’. This man, who arrived in Australia just a week before the date for the federal election was announced, is responsible for all the blatant headlines towards Kevin Rudd.

“His most famous expertise is bare-knuckled political combat and character assassination. His most famous talent is for the brazen front-page banner headline.” (Robert Manne 2013)

But why does it matter who controls the media? Well, you’re living it. Because of the media, Tony Abbot is in office, and arguably destroying Australia’s international reputation with his poor public speaking skills, and lack of general knowledge. The public are bombarded by personal opinions as headlines, and are given a one-sided story depending on the CEO’s political opinion. And it’s because of this, Politics and the campaigns are almost no longer about the policies, but about the punchline in articles.

“…The public are fed rehearsed lines, and know it. Debate is reduced to moronic slogans. Tough decisions are dodged and deferred. Marketing techniques not only sell policies, but craft them.” (The Age, 2011)

Rupert Murdoch has Tony Abbott as his political puppet

NPR recently made a hilarious, and very informative april fools joke on their website. The concept was simple, the title read “Why Doesn’t America Read Anymore?”, but in the body of the text, all it said was, “We sometimes get the sense that some people are commenting on NPR stories that they haven’t actually read. If you are reading this, please like this post and do not comment on it. Then let’s see what people have to say about this ‘story.’ ” (NPR 2014). There were glorious amounts of people sharing and commenting on the post pretending to have read ‘the article’ and commenting on it. This highlights how effective a media headline can be, and the influence it can have on so many people, especially those that don’t even read the contents.

I think it’s very important who ‘owns’ the media, and Rupert Murdoch has made it painfully obvious how much it’s capable of. So for god sakes, tighten the media laws! I’ll leave you with a funny video by ‘friendlyjordies‘, highlighting the 2013 political campaign, and how Murdoch has misrepresented, or painfully missed, some of the Labours policies.

References:

1. Manne Robert 2013, Why Rupert Murdoch Can’t Be Stopped, The Monthly, Viewed 3rd April 2014, <http://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2013/november/1383224400/robert-manne/why-rupert-murdoch-can-t-be-stopped >

2. Flew Terry 2013, FactCheck: does Murdoch own 70% of newspapers in Australia?, The Conversation, Viewed 3rd April 2014, <https://theconversation.com/factcheck-does-murdoch-own-70-of-newspapers-in-australia-16812 >

3. Hyland & Gordon, T&J 2011, ‘Dumb and dumber: why Australian politics is broken’, The Age, 20 February, Viewed 3rd April 2014, <http://www.theage.com.au/national/dumb-and-dumber-why-australian-politics-is-broken-20110219-1b0fu.html>

4. Marinconz, 2014, A Reminder That Not Everyone Reads Before Commenting, Kotaku, Weblog, 3rd April, Viewed 3rd April 2014, <http://kotaku.com/a-reminder-that-not-everyone-reads-before-commenting-1557812641 >

North Korea Is Best Korea!

March 30, 2014July 30, 2014 ~ jakepascoe ~ 4 Comments

North Korea has been in the media a lot over the past few years, especially with Kim Jong-Un, becoming the new ‘Supreme Leader’. The country is infamous for lying to their public and threatening every nation in the world that isn’t North Korea with their nuclear weapons arsenal and war. I chose the picture below because I think this photo tells us so much about the views of the public in North Korea, as well as the government towards each other.

You can clearly see the concerning faces of the adults who can understand the authority and power that Kim Jong-Un possess, and how reckless and cruel he can be, while the kids who do not understand the political controversy and state of their nation seem calm. Kim Jong-Un and his General, are standing straight and look seemingly happy to be there. The two completely different reactions can be contrasted to visually see the opinions of the North Korean government of both sides.

This image is very powerful, and can be interpreted by us in many ways. Personally, the obvious meaning (the Denotation) is that the people of North Korea hate Kim Jong-Un. And perhaps by looking further into it (the Connotation) is that North Korea are trying to advertise themselves as a happy country, where everyone loves their ‘fearless leader’.

All signs point to Kim Jong Un trying to present a cuddlier, more family-friendly image to the world. (Huffington Post 2012)

If there’s one thing to take away from this photo, I think it’s the fact that even though the North Korean government and media are trying to shape the world perspective of themselves (unsuccessfully I might add), this photo can illustrate a governments, an individuals or organisations influence in the media, and what they can do with it. It shows the dangers of how easily we can fall for a false message (If it’s done right), and how much it can influence people’s ideologies.

We have to give him some credit though, after all he did stop the production of nuclear weapons to prioritise their major hunger crisis. So I guess that’s good in some way.

References:

Unknown, 2012, North Korean Family, Image, news.com, Viewed 27th March 2014, <http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/this-north-korean-family-is-just-loving-life/story-e6frflri-1226453845192 >

Ryan Craggs, 2012, Kim Jong Un Family Photo: North Korean Leader Poses With Terrified-Looking Family, Huffington Post, Viewed 28th March 2014 <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/20/kim-jong-un-family-photo_n_1812069.html >

Yo Ho, Yo Ho! It’s A Pirate’s Life For Me

March 30, 2014July 30, 2014 ~ jakepascoe ~ Leave a comment

“Media convergence is more than simply a technological shift. Convergence alters the relationship between existing technologies, industries, markets, genres, and audiences. Convergence refers to a process, but not an endpoint.” (Henry Jenkins 2004 p.34)

Why do we use The Pirate Bay? Hollywood suggests we use it just to piss off the creators and give the finger to the law, essentially being pirates. But that’s not true. The real rather sad reason for our use is simply that we can’t afford to buy every movie, game and tv show that we want to watch. Plus, we want to watch things as soon as they come out, not two months later.

The ideology behind The Pirate Bay is based around the idea of sharing free information and ideas. And because of this, they have become actively involved as a symbol of democracy and online freedom. They stand as a symbol to say “You can’t control us” to the film industry, and they help many little voices appear as one large, threatening voice.

“By Convergence I mean the flow of content across multiple media platforms, the cooperation between multiple media industries, and the migratory behaviour of media audiences.” (Henry Jenkins 2004)

Since The Pirate Bay was introduced in 2003, it has had a very strong impact on media audiences, and their migratory behaviour. It’s caused us to have an instant demand for media, and has shortened our patience for them to be released locally. It’s made us re-think “Is this really worth buying?”, where now audiences will only buy media if they really want it. Simple curiosity is no longer an instinct.

It’s also completely destroyed the renting business. The Pirate Bay, and illegal torrenting itself, can be seen as the reason why companies such as ‘Blockbuster’ and my person favourite, ‘Video-Ezy’, have almost completely disappeared. No want wants to rent a movie anymore. Not when you can easily download a high quality version of the movie for free. It doesn’t make economical sense for the customer.

An idea that does make sense, is Netflix. You pay a monthly subscription, and you have access to SO many movies and Tv shows online. The idea of paying for access, not per movies, I personally think is the way of the future. Spotify Premium have this ideology, as does Flattr. This makes is cheaper for everyone to access what they want, and the content creators are receiving the compensation they deserve. It’s pretty amazing that such a small amount of hardware can create such a shift in society.

References:

1. Jenkins, H. 2004, The cultural logic of media convergence, International Journal of Cultural Studies, Volume 7(1): 33- 43

2. Holmes David 2013, ‘The ride and fall of Blockbuster, told through movies I rented in the 90’s, Pando Daily, Viewed 3rd April 2014,< http://pando.com/2013/11/07/the-rise-and-fall-of-blockbuster-told-through-movies-i-rented-in-the-90s/ >

3. Brian, 2011, How Flattr Works, a simple way to reward people who create content you like, How Stuff Works, weblog post, 24th January, Viewed 3rd April 2014 < http://blogs.howstuffworks.com/brainstuff/how-flattr-works-a-simple-way-to-reward-people-who-creat-content-you-like/ >

You Wouldn’t Download A Car.. Or Would You?

March 21, 2014July 30, 2014 ~ jakepascoe ~ 4 Comments

In today’s modernised world, copyright is all around us, and dictates what we can, and cannot do every day. It’s like a bad smell. No one wants it, but even with all it’s negative attributes, it plays an intricate role in life. Christopher Moore put it well, “Intellectual property has changed how we share material” (2014). The rights people have claimed on certain works have made people rich, and people poor. It’s changed the economic and artistic world, and affected the creativity of almost everyone on the Earth. The concept of copyright began to spread around with the first copyright law in 1709. It established the legal right to copy texts, creating an enforceable monopoly, but limited copyright duration to a maximum term of 28 years. Then as the years rolled on, copyright laws swayed in the favour of the creators, more than doubling the copyright duration, even CRIMINALISING the distribution of copyrighted works, which again limited the creative minds of millions.

There’s the famous (and very old) advertisement on almost all produced movie DVD’s these days with a copyright ad and warning, which attempts to compare downloading a movie illegally through the analogies of “You wouldn’t steal a handbag” and “You wouldn’t download a car”. Ironically, and rather hilariously, this advertisement, itself uses copyrighted material illegally. I’m bringing this up to try and highlight the complexity and backwards nature of copyright at this point in time. It illustrates how copyright GIANTS break copyright law themselves without realising it. Also rather hilariously, you CAN download a car. The comedians down at Honda are making the concepts for several of their cars available for free while Hollywood is surely furiously looking for a new ad campaign. “The company is offering 3D printing data for five of its concept cars for free” (Luke Vandezande 2014).. ‘FOR FREE’. I’ll take three thanks.

Source: http://www.meh.ro/

In terms of The Pirate Bay, copyright is a HUGE issue. It would take someone years to to find out how many copyright infringements have been made because of TPB.

“All of us who run the TPB are against the copyright laws and want them to change, We see it as our duty to spread culture and media. Technology is just a means to doing that.” said a Pirate Bay operator.

The website can be seen as a symbol of rebellion against copyright law, an active defiance and protest showing that they don’t believe in the current state of copyright laws. The ‘Terms and Conditions’ of using The Pirate Bay is rather small compared to most organisations and websites. ‘Digital Trends‘ writes a nice ‘play by play’ of the whole document, and summarising what parts are important, and what everything means. Plus it’s a lot easier to read.

But to put it simply, they’re being the ‘safety’ police, allowing you to downloading anything for personal use, and protecting the users from virus’ by threatening dangerous file uploaders with a fine. They protect your privacy, and allow themselves to post personal emails involving copyright claims.

Fun Fact: You can download a back-up of The Pirate Bay that’s only 75mb.

References:

Moore Christopher , 2014, ‘The Stationers Company’, Lecture Week 3, UOW, 18/03/2014

Whitehouse Alex 2012, Piracy Advert Used Stolen Music, PC & Tech Authority, Viewed 30th March 2014, <http://www.pcauthority.com.au/News/309432,piracy-advert-used-stolen-music.aspx >

Vandezande Luke 2014, Make Your Own Acura NSX With a 3d Printer, AutoGuide.com, Viewed 30th March 2014, <http://www.autoguide.com/auto-news/2014/01/honda-releases-concept-car-3d-printing-data.html >

Couts Andrew 2013, Terms & Conditions: The Pirate Bay’s fine print is still punk rock, Digital Trends, Viewed 29th March 2014, <http://www.digitaltrends.com/web/terms-and-conditions-the-pirate-bay/#!B2Up7 >

Ernesto 2013, Download A Fresh Copy Of The Pirate Bay, With Permission, Torrent Freaks, Viewed 30th March 2014, <http://torrentfreak.com/download-copy-of-the-pirate-bay-with-permission-130220/ >

“But GTA Made Me Do It”

March 17, 2014July 30, 2014 ~ jakepascoe ~ 4 Comments

It’s human nature to find someone, or something to blame. Always. A simple “Because” doesn’t suffice in our society, especially when talking to your parents. And whenever there’s a violent crime or event, the media will always try to give the public what they want. Something to blame. And that’s usually Video Games.

There have been numerous events where a seemingly innocent and harmless kid has shocked everyone into committing such violent acts. There are usually a whole lot of reasons involved that the media tends to ignore, such as bullying, depression and poor family situations. One example is a “Polite, well-respected graduate student” named Steven Kazmierczak. He killed 5 of his fellow University students in the United States before committing suicide with the same gun.

Now, the first thing I think of after hearing this is, ‘HOW did he get a gun?’. The fact that a UNIVERSITY STUDENT managed to obtain a gun highlights how lenient the US are with gun laws, and also how oblivious his parents must have been to the potential dangers. The video below is a skit by The Daily Show, and highlights just how stupid gun control is over in the US compared to Australia.

The link between this crime and video games was made by a man names Jack Thompson. He said to a reporter, “We find from brain scan studies out of Harvard that if you get started playing, for example, violent video games you are more likely to copycat the behaviours in the games.” During the same news interview, Mr Thompson continued onto a self-promotional parade about his books. Now, this makes me think that he only said what he did about Video Games, to get the attention he wanted. Because whenever you hear on the news that “Video games cause kid to murder”, the news makes it out to seem factual, and everyone panics.

Now, i’m supposed to base this post around what the media being blamed for today and is it justified. And it’s quite simple. The news is being blamed for representing false accusations as the truth. And this is true, to an extent, and there are the obvious exceptions of course. It might surprise most of you, but Fox New’s is not actually technically news. It’s entertainment. They won a court case in 2003 which gave them a legal precedent to no longer show the news. Everyone just ASSUMES that it’s news because it’s called “Fox News”, and it covers current events. Some people even confuse “The Onion” as a news source at times, and I find that personally hilarious.

So in conclusion, the media are accused of providing false facts as true, especially in the case of Video Games, and this impression from those educated enough to question the media, is totally justified.

References:

Benedetti Winda 2008, Playing The Blame Game, NBC News, Viewed 17th March 2014, <http://www.nbcnews.com/id/23204875/#.U0u9u-aSz-s >

Unknown Author 2009, Fox-Can-Lie Lawsuit, FoxNewsBOYCOTT, Viewed 17th March 2014, <http://foxnewsboycott.com/resources/fox-can-lie-lawsuit/ >

The What Bay?

March 13, 2014July 30, 2014 ~ jakepascoe ~ Leave a comment

For my media technology, I have chosen The Pirate Bay, and the torrenting technology behind it. I’ve personally always been interested with The Pirate Bay, and I’ve followed most of the history and drama behind the website for the past few years, being a user myself. The moral and ethical implications involved with the website and the social impacts it has is interesting if you really consider the whole picture.

The way The Pirate Bay works is similar to Google. It acts as a search engine for people to find and download torrents. The Pirate Bay shouldn’t legally be held liable for the torrents on the website, the uploaders should. This is like trying to hold Google liable for porn illegal websites.

The documentary ‘The Pirate Bay Away From Keyboard’ highlights these points very well from the perspective of the developers and owners of the website, and the issues involved both from a legal and moral perspective, as well as from a technological perspective. It’s an hour and a half film, but it’s definitely worth a watch. I’d recommend watching it at home after Uni or work, because it needs full attention in order to understand everything that’s being said.

Having said this though, The Pirate Bay is under constant threat from media companies of all sizes concerning the torrents available on their website. The Pirate Bay holds a consistent view on these threats which is evident in their statement’s on their legal page, “0 torrents have been removed, 0 torrents will be removed” (Legal Threats Against The Pirate Bay 2005). The constant threat from legal companies are always going to be a major problem for The Pirate Bay, but another major concern that it faces, is the constant upgrades and maintenance it requires. To run the Pirate Bay, it requires immense hardware to be running in the background, and a lot of money to continuously update it all.

There’s a large moral issue to using The Pirate Bay, the main one being that you’re not ‘supporting the creators’. But in today’s society, supporting the creators isn’t a priority. The priority is ‘I want this content now!’ and this in turn has affected the industry. Especially when content isn’t available to certain demographics! Back in the last decade, people were proud to own an entire series on DVD or VHS, but these days, no one really cares because of how easily accessible everything is online. There are a lot more issues I wanted to include in my first post, but I really couldn’t fit it all in, so stay tuned!

References:

1. No Author, 2005, Legal Threats Against The Pirate Bay, The Pirate Bay, Viewed 24th March 2014 <http://thepiratebay.se/legal>

2. Ann Harrison, 2006, The Pirate Bay: Here To Stay?, Wired, Viewed 24th March 2014 <http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2006/03/70358>

3. Klose 2013, TPB AFK: The Pirate Bay Away From Keyboard, online Video, 8 February, The Pirate Bay, Viewed 25th March 2014, <http://watch.tpbafk.tv/>

Bruises Are Just Hickeys From The Universe

March 9, 2014July 30, 2014 ~ jakepascoe ~ Leave a comment

So the soccer season is upon us! We have quite a few new faces in our team this year, and our coach had a brilliant idea of having a team building/bonding day. Now, we all occasionally go up to our local pub and grab a drink together, but just getting a few drinks and socialising doesn’t give us the opportunity for team building. That’s when our brilliant team coach came up with the idea of paintball.

Now, I had never been paintballing before, so I didn’t know what to expect in terms of pain or what where we would be playing would be like. Turns out it was an indoor arena, with your basic wooden barricades and walls. We only had 6 people that could come, so it was the perfect size.

Now let me tell you this, paintballs hurt. A lot. But the thing is, when you’re actually playing and you get hit, you don’t notice it straight away. It takes about a second to kick in. Maybe it’s just me, but I just felt ‘in the zone’. But the aftermath of paintball is always a good competition. Who got the worst bruise? I’m telling you now, no matter what, you WILL leave with a bruise.

It was a great team building exercise, working together to pelt the life out of the other team, covering each other and winning as a team. It’s a good idea to build communication skills and teamwork, and it’s great fun. 10/10 would recommend. But try not to get shot in the back of your head like I did.