Copyright Thoughts

Over the past couple of computer classes, we have been looking into copyright and piracy laws. We looked into the penalties and punishments, along with some examples of real life cases where people copyrighted. I learned a lot of information that I did not already know. This has changed my view about copyright infringement  and piracy laws. I used to think that these were not as important as stealing from a store but they are equally important. Stealing is illegal, and can be punished like stealing from a store. The maximum punishment for stealing music is up to 5 years in jail and $250,000 in fines. I now understand that piracy is a serious subject, and is not something that can just be overlooked.

An example of copyright infringement is the Michael Bolton vs the Isley Brothers. The Isley Brothers wrote a song in 1966. Then a few years later, Michael Bolton copied the name of the song and some lyrics. They went to court and Bolton was charged with copyright infringement. Click here for more details on the case.I think it was fair the way that Bolton was charged because he stole someone else's work and made money off of it.

Technology Autobiography

I have been around technology for most of my life. It's hard to avoid it in the twenty first century because its all around us. There has been a computer in my house ever since I remember and it's hard to imagine life without one. So my computer history, as you can imagine, is not difficult to write about. The earliest computer I remember using is our family iMac. It was extremely large and was probably made in about 1999. The only time I used it as a child was to play games, but that computer was very important to me.

The next computer I used was the one our family got for Christmas when I was about 8 years old. It was a new Windows computer and I thought it was the coolest thing that ever happened to me. At this age I started to use the computer for other activities besides playing games. I used it for school work, and it was also my first experience with the Internet. We had that computer until my freshman year of high school. Our new computer was an Apple. I still have this computer and it is where I spend most of my time. I am on it constantly typing papers and researching on the Internet. I also use my computer to get on Facebook and to play Freecell every day.

Besides my home life, I've had experience with computers in school. At my grade school, we took computer classes every year. In these classes we learned how to safely use the Internet, write papers, make Power Points, and pamphlets on Publisher. This helped me know how to operate a computer so when I took computer freshman year, I did not have a hard time. At Mercy Academy, we are required to take computer classes freshman year. In this class, we learned how to write formal letters, make effective presentations, and how to use computers properly. So in my future, I will be well adapted to technology because of the experience I have had with computers in my past.

In the future, I think that technology will be very advanced. Computers will be used instead of books and I think that paper will not even be used because everything will be on computers and phones. Computers are going to be made smaller so they can be easily carried around and used at all times. Our society is going to be very advanced one day and it is important to have a computer background so we can stay updated.