Einstein and his personality rights - Lexology
An interesting case which looks at some of the basic law around IP in personal identity
Wednesday, 19 December 2012
Flickr offering a Digital Native response to the Digital Immigrant action of Instagram:
Facebook forces Instagram users to allow it to sell their uploaded photos
Move means pictures could be used in advertising, with all payments going to social media giant
Email
Facebook has changed the Instagram terms of service to allow it to sell users' photos. Photograph: Thomas Coex/AFP/Getty Images
Facebook has infuriated users of the photo-sharing and filtering serviceInstagram by changing its terms of service to allow it to sell peoples' uploaded photos or related data.
The change has led to an outpouring of anger online — although the move echoes similar moves made by other services, such as Twitpic in 2011, which are allied to fast-moving microblogging services such as Twitter.
The change may give a boost to Yahoo's photo-sharing service Flickr, which last week launched a new mobile app, and which gives users full control over the rights to their pictures. Although Flickr has resale deals in place with a number of companies, it shares revenue from those with users and only uses photos with users' explicit permission.
The new Instagram clause notes that "some or all of the service may be supported by advertising revenue" and says that, as a result, "to help us deliver interesting paid or sponsored content or promotions, you agree that a business or other entity may pay us to display your username, likeness, photos (along with any associated metadata), and/or actions you take, in connection with paid or sponsored content or promotions, without any compensation to you."
That means that Instagram photos could be used in advertising, without reference to the owner, with all the payments going to Instagram. There is no opt-out from that use except to stop using the service and to delete your photos.
But Dan Catt, who worked on the early development of Flickr – one of the first photo-sharing services online – pointed out on Twitter that any pictures which included recognisable people would require explicit permission in the form of a "model release" from Instagram to the advertiser seeking to use it, which might be impossible to grant.
The announcement has led to a number of services springing up to let people download their existing Instagram pictures into another archive and even delete them, such as recollect.com.
Facebook bought Instagram because it was growing rapidly. The photo-sharing service was about two years old and had around 33m users at the time of the acquisition – though none on them were paying for the service.
Don Dodge, a venture capitalist who has also worked at Google,commented at the time that "the value of a company is different for different potential acquirers. If Facebook can monetise its users in a way that justifies $100 per user, then paying $30 per user for an acquisition is a great deal".
Instagram's recent attempt to monetrise itself by claiming ownership of all images posted on its service , with absolutely no payment to the individuals who in fact posted the images on its website is a classic example of Digital immigrant thinking, using old laws ( copyright) and the ideas that have driven its development over the past 100 years control of distribution and redundant economic models to alienate its digital native audience. Strange when you think that Instagram and its parent company Facebook are themselves the children of the digital revolution!
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/social-media/9754817/Instagram-we-wont-sell-your-photos.html#disqus_thread
8:35AM GMT 19 Dec 2012
12 Comments
In a message on the Instagram website titled 'Thank you, and we're listening', Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom told users: "It is not our intention to sell your photos."
Instagram's new terms and conditions sparked fury among some users when they were published yesterday. The changes appeared to give the Facebook-owned photo-sharing site 'perpetual' rights to all imagesuploaded, and allow Instagram to use them for commercial purposes without identification.
If Twitter postings are to be believed, many users immediately closed their Instagram accounts and some businesses, such as National Geographic, said they were suspending new posts to the service. Among those protesting was Noah Kalina, the photographer who took the pictures at Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's wedding.
Telling users that "legal documents are easy to misinterpret", Systrom said that the new terms and conditions were intended to give Instagram the option to "experiment with innovative advertising".
He said that Instagram would re-write the terms to clarify how pictures might be used. "The language we proposed also raised question about whether your photos can be part of an advertisement," Systrom wrote. "We do not have plans for anything like this and because of that we’re going to remove the language that raised the question."
Systrom added that Instagram was not claiming ownership of users' photos and said that privacy settings would not be changed.
This is not the only controversy Instagram has been drawn into this month. It recently removed the feature allowing Instagram pictures to be displayed on Twitter, escalating tensions between the rival networks.
More recently it has been claimed that Systrom "verbally agreed" a $525m deal to sell Instagram to Twitter, just weeks before announcing that the service had in fact been bought by Facebook.
Testifying before regulators in August as part of official scrutiny of the Facebook deal, Systrom said there had been no formal offers for Instagram, other than the one from Facebook.
Facebook's offer for Instagram was originally valued at $1bn but that figure dropped to $735m as the social network's share price slid.
Last month Facebook announced changes to its terms and conditions that would see more data shared between Instagram and Facebook.
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During the June and July 2012 I started another blog which at the time I felt would I'd use to track my progress towards my dissertation. I have now decided to role that blog into my original blog
Media47, Transmedia audience Hunting.
SATURDAY, 30 JUNE 2012
Collider:
Collider is an interesting Transmedial project. Live action and
online comic book, possible off-line, as well. not blown away by production
values, not really blown away by story either. But I certainly think this is
worth watching to see how things develop.
http://www.sfx.co.uk/2012/06/16/collider-episode-3-breakdown/
http://www.colliderworld.com/
http://www.facebook.com/colliderworld
Interesting project
Just started reading Janet Hague, Murray's books and on the
holodeck. The future of narrative in cyberspace first two chapters of very
interesting. One of the key things to remember about this book is written from
the perspective of somebody who is in right at the very start of the new
Transmedial age.she discusses in the opening chapters. Some ideas about the
fundamental nature of the immersive Transmedial experience. The impact that it
has on the viewer/consumer the impact that this type of technology might have
on society at large.
Janet Murray uses images of a Transmedial experiences found
within fictional setting to explore both a utopian and dystopian the
Transmedial future. She uses the holodeck found on the starship enterprise, as
an example a utopian Transmedial future. A future in which the consumer uses
the Transmedial environment to stimulate their imagination.The consumer,
effectively reaching into the Transmedial world and controlling what he or she
sees and does. It is a world where the Transmedial environment can be used to
confront social, personal problems/issues. A world where the Transmedial
experience augments and adds to the everyday lives of those who consumed it.
She positions, this utopian view against the dystopian view
presented by movies such as Huxley's Brave New World and Ray Bradbury's book
Fahrenheit 451. In these fictional depictions of the Transmedial experience,
the experience takes over the consumer superseding the consumer's
real-life. Effectively, the Transmedial environment controls the consumer,
ultimately telling the consumer what he or she should want and feel.
The transmedial experience within these dystopian views of the
future meets the consumer's shallow immediate basic lusts (sexual excitement
etc) and in so doing breaks the link between the consumer and the real world.
Murray uses these examples to tease out some the more esoteric moral
issues surrounding transmedia and the consumption of transmedial product. For
many these are still relevant questions today.
As perhaps it does for anybody working in this space the
question raised is how do I want the consumer to operate in the
transmedial world I am about to create?
Janet Murray makes it clear in these chapters that the idea of a
new media/medium somehow corrupting it's user and society at large is not in
itself a new. And again, she helpfully drawers our attention to some of
the more historical examples of where new media types have been seen as a
danger to society something incredibly negative. Even the book, and the humble printing
press were seen as dangerous. When they first appeared.
Although the moral questions raised within this chapter are
interesting. I don't want to spend too much time thinking about them.
They are surely questions which have been asked, fears that have been
expressed, whenever a new media platform has become available, and information
is available in a new form.
What I do think is relevant for me is a basic
understanding where the consumer sits in the transmedial space?
The arguments, Janet Murray is raising about audience control,
social impact relate directly to what we call audience participation.
How do you get the audience to participate? How do you capture
them?
These are fundamental issues that I think I want to explore in
my dissertation .
FRIDAY, 22 JUNE 2012
http://www.brandongenerator.com/behind-the-scenes
Just stumbled across this - really very interesting transmedia
project using the power of crowds to generate content , certainly raises issues
about ownership and line where professional creator and amateur
enthusiast meet.
THURSDAY, 21 JUNE 2012
This is my
second blog on transmedial narrative , and once again I am creating it as part
of my MA into digital media and transmedial narrative!
This time
and I preparing to undertake my dissertation, which right now has a working
title of The convergent audience understanding audience participation within a
transmedial environment. This may change ( it already has a number of times
over the last wk) but I certainly feel I have the right elements in forcing on
audience participation.
This is
where my journey into Transmedial narrative and audience participation begins!
I punched Transmedia narrative / audience participation into google and amongst
the first things thrown up was a recent lecture by Henry Jenkins. Henry Jenkins
is one of the fathers of transmedia theory. It was upon his ideas that I
based my first transmedial project the SEER and I thought it would be fun
to see what HJ was saying now on audience participation i a transmedial
reality.
In a recent
lecture Henry Jenkins outlined his current thinking on transmedia and the
audience.
WIthin this
lecture HJ identifies 5 logics of engagement which he suggests go some
way to understanding the explosion in fan participation.
In Jenkins’ view, five
logics are contributing to the emergence of transmedia and the phenomenon of
increased fan participation (‘fandom’):
-
The logic of entertainment, as evidenced by the
presence in the US TV schedules of TV series and reality shows;
-
The logic of social connection, highlighted by votes
and discussions on social networking sites;
-
The logic of experts, symbolised by the collective
intelligence (Levy, 1994true) brought to bear by fans for the purposes of
creation, production and discussion. Henry Jenkins cites the examples of the creation
of Twin Peaks fan sites and the Lost Wiki (Lostpedia), which both
collate articles written by fans to offer greater insight into both series;
-
The logic of immersion, which encourages participation. For
example, on Oscars night fans could use a number of interactive tools to
immerse themselves in the ceremony and form a community;
-
The logic of identification, which enables fans to establish
an identity depending on what they watch.
http://www.transmedialab.org/en/events/henry-jenkins-explains-his-vision-of-transmedia-and-audience-engagement/
Extract
taken from reports on lecture by Henry Jenkins on Friday 25 May 2012 on
Transmedia Storytelling entitled “Engagement, participation, play: the value
and meaning of Transmedia audiences”.
Henry
Jenkins explains his vision of transmedia and audience engagement
Logics of
engagement:
In Jenkins’
view, five logics are contributing to the emergence of transmedia and the
phenomenon of increased fan participation (‘fandom’):
-
The logic of entertainment, as evidenced by the presence in the
US TV schedules of TV series and reality shows;
- The logic
of social connection, highlighted by votes and discussions on social
networking sites;
- The logic of experts,
symbolised by the collective intelligence (Levy, 1994true) brought to bear by
fans for the purposes of creation, production and discussion. Henry Jenkins
cites the examples of the creation of Twin Peaks fan sites and the Lost Wiki (Lostpedia), which both
collate articles written by fans to offer greater insight into both series;
-
The logic of immersion, which encourages participation. For example, on
Oscars night fans could use a number of interactive tools to immerse themselves
in the ceremony and form a community;
- The logic of
identification, which enables fans to establish an identity depending on
what they watch.
THE
DEFINITION OF TRANSMEDIA STORYTELLING
Henry
Jenkins then returned to his definition of Transmedia Storytelling, which he
proposed for the first time in a 2003 analysis of the augmented universe of the
Matrix film franchise, published in Technological Review.
Taking this
definition as a starting point, he suggested examples to illustrate the
concept, both in terms of production strategies and fan extensions. For
instance, Jenkins highlighted the narrative universe of The Wizard of Oz
(musicals, cartoon series, books, comic strips) to illustrate the idea that, in
his opinion, Transmedia strategies were in place well before the term was
coined and defined, and certainly well before the rapid rise of digital media.
He emphasised this idea by explaining that Transmedia Storytelling is perfectly
viable without using new technologies, and that the latter have mainly been
used as facilitators by the modern creators of transmedia universes.
The
researcher at USC’s Annenberg Lab then moved on to more contemporary examples,
such as the creation of the Tru Blood drink as a direct spin-off of the
TV products, the posting of “no aliens” stickers on benches specially designed
for humans to symbolise the racial segregation depicted in the film District
9, and the Buffy the Vampire Slayer comic books created by Joss
Whedon, which added an eighth non-televised season to the series.
Fans,
immersed in a wide-ranging narrative universe, strive to produce their own
transmedia extensions, in an example of what Jenkins calls the logic of
performance. For example, fans of Lost have managed to create a map of
the island which is not shown in the series, enabling them to map locations and
characters’ movements. Glee fans, meanwhile, perform songs and dance
routines from episodes of the show and then post and share them on platforms
like YouTube. Finally, fans of Star Wars have made Star Wars Uncut,
a series of sequences filmed by them and stitched together to recreate the
whole film.
Jenkins also noted that some fan extensions precede the cultural
industries’ transmedia creations. He cited the example of Pottermore,
the official transmedia extension created by the author of the Harry Potter
books. This website offers functions such as the Sorting Hat Ceremony, which
determines which of the four school Houses each new Hogwarts student is
assigned to. Yet this ceremony had already been developed by fans themselves
ten years before, leading Jenkins to note that the cultural industries are
lagging ten years behind!
SATURDAY, 7 JULY 2012
I have over the last week continued to read Murray's Hamlet on the
hoodeck, and although I haven't had as much time as I would have liked life
being what it is. This book continues to surprise me with just how readable, it
is.
At the opening of chapter 2. Murray State following
" starting in the 1970s, computers have become cheaper and
faster, more capricious and more connected to one another at an exponential
rate of improvement, merging previously disparate technologies of communication
and representation into a single medium."
Murray is talking about convergence, offering a definition of
convergence, digital convergence. A definition that I like, and a definition
that going forward, I am going to see is my personal list of what digital
convergence is. Murray goes on to talk about the new narrative entertainments, which
this convergence, digital media has brought to the consumer. She cites the new
storytelling format such as shoot them up. Video games and virtual dungeons and
Dragons, as examples of a new way for artists to express themselves. She raises
the idea that it's a mistake to benchmark these new media productions against
older media forms. She says, for example, that we cannot use the English
theatre of Renaissance or the novel of the 19th century, or even the average
Hollywood film as a standard by which to judge the work in a medium that is
going through rapid change. Once again alluding to the historical examples of
the invention of new mediums and Murray looks back to the 1455 invention of the
printing press. She says that what came after printing press in 1501 was not
the book as we know it now. That technology was still in its infancy, Marry
points that they 50 more years of experimentation that were needed to establish
conventions such as the legible typefaces and proof sheet corrections page
numbering paragraphs. Title pages, chapter divisions, before the book as we
know it came into existence. Murray theorises the tangled websites in Carey
video games of the early 1990s are part of a similar period of technical
evolution. Part of a similar struggle for conventions of coherent
communication. What's really interesting about this is the speed of change and
development within the digital environment. The technology of Transmedia, has
made quantum leaps in the last 20 years has the development of the conventions
required for coherent communication within this new Transmedial world made
similar progress.
Murray goes on to talk about the ways in which storytelling is
continuous and streets or leagues from one medium into another. She pointed the
way the early books. Talk their lead. As regards what the story was from
previously published prose and poetry single sheets all storytelling, and
repackaged that storytelling within become pensions of this new published book,
medium and created the novel. As we know it now. For me as a writer that
question, she poses is now a mine going to repackage existing storytelling
techniques into this new Transmedial environment.
Murray starts a journey of narrative development with the
concept of the linear story line. Within this linear storyline, Murray draws
out the idea of the multi-form story. She identifies this as a storyteller,
struggling against the boundaries of the linear narrative. Murray defines
multi-form story as
" they written or dramatic narrative that presents a single
situation or plotline in multiple versions, versions that would be mutually
exclusive in our ordinary experience."p.31
Murray, points to the Frank Coppola's beloved Christmas story.
It's a wonderful life, as one of the best-known examples of the multi-form
story format. This film juxtaposes to diverging itches of a small town, one in
which the lead dies, and one in which the lead lives. The movie as a whole, she
says it is around the moment when the lead protagonists are facing ruin and
remembering all the disappointments of his life, contemplates suicide. Isn't
that moment, an angel offers him the opportunity to replay the last 30 years,
without his input. He sees the world is a much duller place. What I found
interesting about this idea of the multiform story is that it certainly sits
for me at the heart of the Transmedial narrative. Because isn't the classic
Transmedial narrative multiform story spread over a number of different
platforms. I think the television series lost, would be a classic example of
the multiform story within the traditional television medium. Over a period of
weeks, or episodes, we saw the different protagonists reached the same point
from different angles. Therefore seeing and understanding the oval rules story
in a deeper and more meaningful way. I would suggest that this reflects the
narrative style of the bungalow term classic Transmedial story. With the
different media forms, offering different views of the story as it goes
forward.
Murray extends the discussion about multiform storytelling
beyond the storyteller and into the impact that it cares on the story consumer.
The way it changes the position of the consumer. Murray, points to a short
story by Elmore Schwartz titled " in dreams Begin responsibilities" published
in 1937, and this is the story of a frames that he watches a silent movie of
his parents first meeting with endocrine, as it watches and receive the moment,
his parents are about to meet. They stand up and shout I'll don't you see how
happy and make yourselves! As if in response to his becomes a moment where his
parents rather than coming together look as if they're about to go their
separate ways. At that point the young shouts no, no. Is it weird that state.
Why doesn't my mother go after my father? If he does not what will he do. What
my concern about the story. That way, that it attempts to dramatise the rate is
position turning him as a member of the audience in a linear story. Passive to
interact. The question, that is tormenting him is not whether eating their
witness the past by watching the film and painful future role. But whether he
can choose to change the multi-form story is an expression Murray says all the
anxiety on aroused by posing such choices.
Again, what I find so interesting here is the way in which
Murray for me is discussing this concept of audience participation. A movement
from passive to active. The audience actively having a say in this story as it
unfolds.
Murray goes on to explore some of the ways in which the ideas of
multiform storytelling have been used within the more traditional media forms.
Pointing to the movies Groundhog Day, where the protagonist repeats the same
day, until he gets it right. Within Groundhog Day, we see Bill Murray goes
through a series of interactions with other individuals repeating that
interaction until we get what we has the audience see as the right response
once he has achieved the right response when Bill Murray is and how to move
forward in the story. What's really interesting about looking at the movie
through three days of multiple form story is that you can see that that really
forms the basis of most modern day. Video games, list the ones where you are
exploring the Transmedial environment you as a character have a number of
interactions with other characters. You are then allowed to move forward in the
story. This feels for me like an example of a traditional narrative
storytelling technique for multiform story being applied in creating something
different. In the new Transmedial arena.
Again, interestingly, Murray ties in these concepts of
multi-form, story telling and changing of the position of the consumer into
early thoughts about the active audience.
"When the writer explains the story to include multiple
possibilities. The reader assumes a more active role."p38.
Murray states that this new active role can be unsettling for
the read, but can also be experienced as an invitation to join in the creative
process, and I suppose it's this idea of an invitation to enjoy the creative
process that sits at the heart of audience participation in the Transmedial
narrative. This invitation to join in with the creative process is identified
by Murray as happening, right across the board. Murray points to a comic book
example, where the creator Mike Baron introduces the first five issues of his
nexus comic book stories with a chatty description of his collaboration with
comic book artist Steve Rude. Within description, he talks about the way in
which he and Steve rude, argued about the characters they were creating. Murray
sees this discussion as impacting upon the fictional integrity of the comic
book itself. Saying that for the audience. The integrity of the characters that
were being discussed was lost. But what's interesting, she says that the audience.
The dramatic interest, which is from what's happened to the characters within
the comic book to what is happening between the two comic book creators. This
movement in focus for the audience from characters to creators is interesting
and something that I think can occur and explore along the way. My hope for my
own work is clearly all attention is on the characters and story and not on.
The creators behind, but there may well be part of Transmedial world which
includes the making of documentary or some kind of making of commentary.
It is at this point that Murray begins to discuss some ideas
around the impact of fan culture. Murray prefaces her commentary. The idea that
traditionally, television is not being responsive to fan input. She goes on to
say that this is not stop fans, developing their own underground culture in the
past. This culture would have centred around underground magazines, possibly
trading videos or, or direct conversation. Now Murray points of the Internet as
providing the existing fan culture with a platform from which they can now
communicate with both creators and other fans in a more direct way. Murray
points to the fact that fans have always shared gossip and critical commentary
on the shows they love. Star Trek in particular, as produced a vast amounts of
alternative literature detailing the adventures of the crew. Often written by
women. The stories have drawn out some of the more emotional, relationship
driven elements of the star trek universe, Murray also points the way in which
in the 1990s when this book was written fans were editing video tape to create
their own versions of the show. This type of textual poaching is Henry Jenkins
called hers, expanded exponentially with the development of the World Wide Web,
and more importantly, possibly, the development of social media. These are
things which Murray really has no idea about because they're so far in the
future for, but it's clear that ideas are applicable directly. Murray touches
on some interesting topics here discussing things around ownership. The way in
which fans feel that they own the product themselves that they are entitled to
images, photographs, to change to write to create their own versions of the
characters they love. Clearly, this can be a problem when you have issues
around intellectual property, and the ownership of copyright. Again, this is
something that everybody who works in this kind of Transmedial must be thinking
of fan ownership plan involvement. How can it be controlled, how can it be used
to develop and strengthen the both the narrative story and the underlying
brand.
Murray goes on to have an interesting discussion that may be a
bit out of date, around the impact of 3-D cinema and the way in which the 3-D
cinema offers you a more immersive experience and Excel are things he is saying
here are interesting but outmoded, simply because they the ability of the
Transmedial storyteller to immerse their consumer within the Transmedial world
has grown so exponentially over the last 20yrs.
Posted by James Gbesan at
05:48
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