Hey Dan, a thousand thanks on all fronts. FWIW: during a recent visit to the States (Minneapolis, to be precise) I was astonished to see the level of interest in / availability of vinyl, beginning with a warehouse-sized retail store dedicated to same. I'm still working on trying to synthesize and summarize from the many terrific responses that have come this way - but so far, I can offer one broad point. There is no question but that, as the reviewer noted, CDs and DVDs are largely no longer recognizable media for large swaths of students - but this is variable in at least two ways. One, broadly in terms of national/cultural differences, as Jakob Jünger noted re. Germany; Sam Phiri re. Zambia; and Xanat Meza re. Latin America - these remain important media. Two - ditto for, e.g., those located in the more rural areas of Australia who have comparatively limited bandwidth access, etc. (Similar comments hold, so far as I can tell, for the FLOSS discussion - though as others have also noted, while the debate in these terms is no longer so prominent - that's in part because of moderate successes in various forms that are now taken for granted.) Speaking of bandwidth - since I've taken more than my share of it here of late, I'll save more specific responses to these and others kind enough to respond for offlist. But again, a thousand thanks to one and all - most helpful and all will be gratefully acknowledged. best, - c. On 04/05/2019 11:04, Dan L. Burk wrote:
I understand the reviewer's point, but wouldn't get too confident about what types of media are or are not relevant to the audience.
Vinyl records, for example, have made a surprising comeback and I think all of my students understand what they are when they come up in discussions.
On the other hand, I was floored two or three years ago to find that none of the students had any idea what a player piano roll was. (I anticipated that none of them would know anything about punch cards, or Jaquard looms, but the blank stares at player pianos was a surprise.)
But then this year, I didn't have to explain player pianos, because the students were all familiar with the opening credits of "Westworld."
Next year, who knows?
So these things come and go. Just add a footnote explaining CDs if you are uncertain.
I also disagree pretty strongly about FLOSS. It remains an enormous headache for developers.
Cheers, DLB
On 2019-05-03 00:26, Charles M. Ess wrote:
Dear colleagues,
I am revising my _Digital Media Ethics_ for a 3rd edition (!!), due out early next year.
A first query: an important criticism raised by an astute and most helpful reviewer has to do with (a) using an example of stealing a CD and (b) a larger discussion of FLOSS and copyleft schemes such as Creative Commons licensing, etc. The reviewer observes that (a) his/her students simply will not recognize or relate to the example involving a CD as, briefly, streaming services have largely taken over music consumption practices and very few, if any, students still purchase CDs. Similarly (b) FLOSS is more or less no longer a relevant topic; rather discussion of copyright / copyleft is now much more focused on remix practices.
Based on what I know of the US/UK contexts, the reviewer is clearly spot on, and I'm genuinely very grateful for the insightful critiques and constructive suggestions, and will do my best to pursue these.
At the same time, however - and this, at last, leads to the query - I'm wondering how culturally/nationally variable these points may be? That is: (a) I know that in this here Scandinavia, despite the overwhelming predominance of consumption via streaming services, CDs (and DVDs) are still prominently on offer, not only in brick-and-mortar and online stores: they are also _de rigueur_ at every concert I've attended, i.e., for sale at the end thereof. There is no doubt that their sales numbers have plummeted - now outdone by vinyl in some cases - but here, I have the impression, they remain familiar artifacts? Similarly (b) I think I know that interest in FLOSS production and distribution remains strong in Latin America and at least some parts of Asia?
So: only for the sake of having a better global sense of these points - if AoIR-ists can offer culturally-/nationally-specific quick characterizations of how far (a) physical media such as CDs do / not remain relevant in especially student music consumption, and/or (b) FLOSS - including ongoing development and distribution of software (beyond the usual suspects of Mozilla products, wikipedia, etc.) is / no longer of any significance?
I hope this query might be of general interest as it would give us at least a quick and dirty snapshot of all of this. Again, the point is not to somehow counter an important critique and helpful suggestion. On the contrary, I gratefully take the points and suggestions - but want / need to know how far these may hold globally as the book is aimed towards a global audience.
Second - potentially inappropriate - query. In conjunction with this revision, the publisher (Polity Press) has asked me to develop a list of colleagues who may be interested in receiving a review copy of the book when it is published - along with a list of journals that might likewise be interested in reviewing it.
If you are so interested and/or have a suggestion for a journal / reviewer, I'd be very grateful if you would contact me offlist with your contact details and/or journal suggestions.
As usual, a thousand thanks and all best in the meantime, - charles -- Professor in Media Studies Department of Media and Communication University of Oslo <http://www.hf.uio.no/imk/english/people/aca/charlees/index.html>
Postboks 1093 Blindern 0317 Oslo, Norway c.m.ess@media.uio.no <mailto:c.m.ess@media.uio.no> _______________________________________________ The Air-L@listserv.aoir.org <mailto:Air-L@listserv.aoir.org> mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir.org Subscribe, change options or unsubscribe at: http://listserv.aoir.org/listinfo.cgi/air-l-aoir.org
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-- +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Dan L. Burk Chancellor's Professor of Law University of California, Irvine +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
-- Professor in Media Studies Department of Media and Communication University of Oslo <http://www.hf.uio.no/imk/english/people/aca/charlees/index.html> Postboks 1093 Blindern 0317 Oslo, Norway c.m.ess@media.uio.no