Showing posts with label online. Show all posts
Showing posts with label online. Show all posts

I'm Not Going to Defend Piracy. However....

Sunday, October 11, 2009 by Mirandarin

I think it’s fantastic how digital media operate. Thousands of people can have the same song, movie or software in their possession without reducing the quality, or depriving anyone else of access. As explained by Majid Yar in last week’s reading, digital content “can be endlessly reproduced, but this does not entail dispossessing anyone” (pg. 613).

When assignment time rolls around, the good books disappear from the library fast. Most frustratingly, when a fellow student has a certain library book in their possession, it prevents the rest of us from accessing it. In situations such as these, ‘E-Books’ and journal articles are a godsend, allowing an unlimited number of students to access a single source at any one time.

I went to the video store recently to rent the two films that will feature in my next essay, only to find that they were both unavailable. Most likely I would have been able to find copies of these films on the internet. I would have been able to download them quickly and efficiently to my own computer. Why is it, then, that this is considered illegal, when downloading an ‘E-Book’ or online journal article is not?

I guess this is one of the many reasons why piracy is so common. The younger generation of the Western world has been brought up in a society where sharing and DIY culture are not only acceptable, but also encouraged. When institutions, such as universities, promote easy access to online sources, it seems only inevitable that people will seek such easy access in other arenas.

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You can't kill her, she's a girl.

Sunday, August 2, 2009 by shaf_sz

Elena Bertozzi's reading highlighted a few things about gender and digital game play that makes a lot of sense. Girls are starting to cross into this male dominated online world so it is worth a look at, because the girls didn't forget their 'social rights' and feminist ideologies, fellas!

Bertozzi had a particular point that really hit home with me. Bertozzi explains how females are seen as the 'weaker sex' irl (in real life, for all you non-nerds), and how this acceptance of females needing to be protected by males, and more importantly, for males never to be aggressive towards woman, leaps over into the online world from the real world. My question is, does this bring the good with the bad?

I play online games myself but casually. However, there are people that invest most of their day 'earning gold' or 'grinding' or 'pvping' (player versus player combat, in online role playing games). These people take gaming to the extreme and consider personal hygiene a joke. These gamers tend to be males from my experience, have a feeling of ownership, or a stronger sense of citizenship, to the online gaming world. So when we have a *gasp* female come and challenge them, in the form of the attention they get from other players, and their social status within a particular group, misogyny can rear it's ugly head.

An example from World of Warcraft:

"What the f**k, why did she get those boots, is it 'cause she's a girl?"
"Haha, look at that stupid newbie b*tch, she had no idea what to do and got owned".

We all like to believe we live in an egalitarian world, but in this sense, digital gaming makes it easy for the misogynist in every male to rear its ugly head. And the main reason? Anonymity. You can call a girl whatever you like online and there's no fear of retribution, the worst she can do is call you names back. I don't know about the girls out there, but that to me isn't very inviting.

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