Hello to the whole Telecommunication and Electronic Media Industries class. My name is Josh Winters. My major is in Mass Communications, specialized in Film and Media Arts, and I also have a minor in Film Studies. As you could already guess, I really want to get involved with film as a career choice, specifically anything that has to do with production or editing, mostly editing. I have a YouTube channel in which I make amateur videos on, and I've been doing that since summer 2008. They're nothing professional, and I still have a lot to learn, since I just upgraded to using Sony Movie Studio HD Platinum 10.0 from using Windows Movie Maker most of the time. I can't afford any of the high profile software like Final Cut Pro yet, so I have to utilize the options I have available to me at the moment. Anyways, most of the videos I have up are just me messing around and experimenting, even attempting to be comical, but I don't know if I succeeded or not. If you're interest is slightly piqued, go to this link to check it out, but don't expect anything mind-blowing.
Yeah, my user name is colonelpork. It's derived from a nickname I've retained throughout the years. Long story of how I obtained it. But anyways, now that I've shamelessly self-promoted my less than stellar channel, I suppose I'll tell a little more about myself. I'm originally from Michigan, but I currently live in Rockmart, a small town to the northeast of Carrollton, so I have to drive an hour to get to college. I'm used to it, though. There's just something about sharing a dorm with another person that doesn't strike my fancy, so I'd rather use the money for gas rather than room expenses. That's another thing about me: I'm not the most social person out there. I can be a little awkward and quiet at first, but I'm hoping that I can improve my social skills due to my major. Generally, I love playing video games (mostly horror, role-playing, and point-and-click adventure games), listening to a lot of underground, experimental, conscious, or hardcore hip-hop music, and watching movies (my favorites being dramas and dark comedies). So, if you like any of those things, then lets get together and shoot the breeze or something.
As a person who makes videos sporadically, I'm one of many people out there who uses video clips, licensed music, and other multimedia in order to accentuate the effects of my videos. Who wouldn't? It definitely helps. However, sometimes YouTube spots these usages of copyrighted material in my videos and just removes them. Sure, it upsets me a little bit because I worked hard on the video and I wasn't trying to use the songs or clips for the purposes of making a profit, but there's really no harm done, and if I just have the video I created on my hard drive, at least I still personally have it and can attempt to put it up on Facebook or YouTube a second time. Now, instead of receiving a warning in which YouTube just takes my video down, what if I was also prosecuted as a criminal? That is one major issue surrounding the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) that was introduced by the House of Representatives last year. Ever since, it has caused many online opponents to become outraged. It is a bill backed by many major power players in the film industry who want to censor the Internet just to maintain their profits, and if this bill is passed, many websites will be shut down if even the slightest bit of copyrighted material is used on a website or video and people will even be looked upon as criminals. In my opinion, this bill is a major violation of the First Amendment and discourages creativity. Not only that, but instead of stopping any piracy that happens today, the restrictions and censorship will only provoke pirates even more, so instead of reducing the amount of piracy, SOPA will only boost it. The economy could also be at risk. Thousands of people could be without jobs if websites are shut down. People who make a living informing people about multimedia through a variety of reviews could be prosecuted and shut down because they would be using a couple of clips in their review to get their point across. These reviews endorse the products and actually boost sales, and without them, how will companies prosper without the people becoming informed? SOPA hurts the economy and hurts the Internet, which is THE major form of mass communication today. It also hurts morale, and without a reliable, uncensored Internet, there will be a mutual discontent amongst the people who use it everyday, including people like myself who are planning on making a life out of creating entertaining videos. For those reasons, like many other Internet users out there, I cannot support a bill like SOPA. For more details about the bill, American Censorship gives a very thorough breakdown about what the bill is trying to accomplish and there is also a very helpful video that explains its purpose on the page. More information about the bill and how it affects everyone can be found in this FAQ on CNET.
Finally, below is a reliable video that explains the gist of what SOPA does without any complicated wording and an easy explanation that manages to be very informative. The person explaining the bill happens to be a movie reviewer on YouTube who calls himself JeremyJahns, and he is one of very many entertaining reviewers who would be affected by the bill if it passed. A word of warning: his video does contain some strong language at times, but it doesn't take away from the points he makes about the bill, and he explains everything very fluently.
And that about does it. Despite major issues of government bills such as SOPA attempting to ruin the future of the Internet as we know it, I'm very passionate about a bright future in video making and sharing my video creations online, and I'm hoping to have a lot of fun in this class, learning more about telecommunications and mass media in general. I also hope that this class will assist me in getting myself out there to find an internship or to let my current video work be known. I'm looking forward to learning a lot and meeting new people, so hopefully this class will turn out great!
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