Learning by Building

I never really understood the mechanics of English until I learned a foreign language. As somebody with English-speaking parents and English-speaking friends, I learned to conjugate verbs like most children by mimicing the sounds and being corrected when I mispoke. My mother would say, "No, Jessica. It's I drew, not I drawed." I never understood why it was "I drew" instead of "I drawed", I just corrected the word in my mind and learned that it "sounded" better so therefore I should say it that way.

I learned English like every other public school child. I learned to underline verbs, circle proper nouns and highlight nouns. It seemed simple enough in practice, but I was never very good at identifying the difference between a noun and verb, an adverb and an adjective, etc. When I was fourteen I decided I wanted to learn a foreign language. It wasn't until my Spanish teacher pointed out that "leer", "dibujar", and "vivir" were verbs that I truly understood what a verb was and that we conjugated in the English language without thinking and because "it sounded right".

Ironically, I never really understood the mechnics of English until I learned Spanish. I can now identify nouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives, etc. quite easily. I know I learned the subjunctive at one time in English, but I didn't understand what it was or how it worked until I learned Spanish. I wanted to explain this all to you so could understand that I am the type of person who learns from building on top of rules and foundations.

I never really was very good at arithmetic or algebra, but I did quite well in calculus. So it's no surprise that now that I have my first year of law school behind me, I've learned more in my Copyright and Trademarks class about Contracts and Property than I ever could have learned in the actual courses. I had to learn Contracts and Property to understand Copyrights, but now that I understand Copyrights - I feel I have an even better understanding of Property and Contracts. The puzzle pieces are finally starting to line up and I understand why we learned about adhesion contracts in Contracts and licenses in Property.

An example of this is when a user installs a new program on his or her computer. The user does not own anything, but rather has a license to use the software. Most of the time when installing the software, the user has to agree to the Terms of Use or a contract by clicking a check box or simply a button that say "I agree", these are called Click Wrap Licenses and they create contracts between the software company and the product user. The software is licensed for use under Copyright Law and the Click Wrap License (contract) was created to force users to adhere to Copyright Law. Are you seeing how they build now?

I also know I'm a visual learner. I have to see the whole picture before I can really understand how each piece fits together underneath the whole. For this reason I often create flow charts and diagrams to help me see where each piece fits. I think that's why learning Copyright Law has solidified my understanding of Property and Contracts, it's forced me to re-evaluate the information I learned last year and put it under a new heading. Thus, I've created a broader overall diagram to study what I learned last year and what I'm learning this year and how those concepts all fit together.

I think my ideal class would be encompassed by the teacher the first day handing out an entire outline or flow chart of what we are going to learn. Then taking each piece of the outline and explaining it in detail and showing how it fits within the individual diagrams or outline. To some students, this approach would be very overwhelming. But I really think this approach would be ideal for me. Since no professor will probably ever revert to this method I have a few suggestions for visual, bigger picture learners.

1. Refer to the Table of Contents of your book when learning material to see how the material you are learning fits within the entire context of the subject.
2. Most of the CrunchTime Emanual books have flow charts in the front pages. I used the Civil Procedure one to understand the Erie Doctrine and Jurisdictional questions. It was a life saver!
3. MS Word has a free diagramming tool built in. Open MS Word, go to Insert --> Smart Art --> Hierarchy --> Select your Style and start creating! 
1. PC Version: MS Office Bundle Student Version $59.95
2. Mac Version: MS Office Bundle Student Version $149.95
• I would check with my school's computer store, I bought mine for $25 each at my campus computer store. Often these sorts of promotions are only available through your school computer store. Check with them first!
4. You can use a professional software to create a diagram. 
1. If you're using a PC, I recommend MS Visio (Student Version: $55.95 for qualifying student.)
2. If you're using a Mac I recommend OmniGraffle Pro (Student Version $119.95.)
5. For oultining and creating simple diagrams I also recommend a simpel notebook style program. 
1. For a PC, I recommend MS OneNote (bundled with the student package of MS Office)
2. For a Mac, I recommend Circus Ponies' NoteBook or OmniOutliner Pro 3. (Student Version NoteBook $29.95 , OmniOutliner Pro $49.95.) 
• I actually test drove both OmniOutliner and NoeBook and decided to purchase NoteBook because I thought it offerred more features for the price and I liked the "notebook" feel. If you are stuck between the two, I recommend downloading a free trial of both and test driving them.
  

New Post on SMLS: The Consequences of Being a Legally Clueless Celebrity Online

Ever wonder if celebrities ever face consequences for their actions? It seems like everyone with money or with fame can find a way to wriggle out of their problems. When every day people say legally clueless stuff or infringe on beliefs they preach, very few people notice. But when celebrities speak out for a cause and right which they believe in, but then violate that very right - we call them hypocrites.

Check out my article at Social Media Law Student. Let me know what you think, I'm open to praise or criticism. :)

Did you know?

Blogger has a blog app for the iPhone?


It's called Blog Press and it's free! You can upload photos, create posts and manage all your Blogger posts from your iPhone!!!

This app was created especially for Blogger's 10th birthday! I'm glad Blogger finally created a way to write posts from the iPhone, it's been long overdue!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Out of It « Brad Sucks

via bradsucks.net

Found Brad Sucks's website along with free downloads of all his music. Wow.
I think I'm in love. All of his music is licensed under a Creative Commons Share-A-Like license. Meaning it's free to download and share. I had to give this great artist another shout out after I'd realized he'd completely embraced the Creative Commons lifestyle.
Love his music, love the free access to great music. What more can I say? Check him out!

Posted via web from A Techno-ly Legal Quickie

Free Music Archive: Brad Sucks - Bad Sign

via freemusicarchive.org

Was searching for a way to find free commercially viable music to follow up my Google Image Search article when I stumbled across this very awesome artist on FreeMusicArchives.com (FMA).
Some of the music is not really what I'd call "music" (like breathing into a microphone for 3 minutes, it's really music in my opinion.) But some of the music is pretty cool like this artist. Love this song.

Posted via web from A Techno-ly Legal Quickie

Check out another great post at SMLS!

I made a short tutorial on How to Use Google Images without Getting Sued at Social Media Law Student!

If you own a blog, post things to Posterous, make collages from images on Google Images, want to sell t-shirts with Google Images on them, etc. etc. etc., you will definitely want to read/watch this post! It will teach you about one of my favorite features of Google Images (searching for commercially reusable photos!)

Check it out at SMLS!

As Easy As 1, 2, 3 Post.

Posted via email from A Techno-ly Legal Quickie

HootSuite Demo

via youtube.com

Great New Twitter App that lives on your BROWSER! Free up some resources and still have all the functionality of TweetDeck!
I love this online application! Check out my super sweet video introducing everyone to my new favorite application! Special thanks to Huma Rashid for showing me this Web 2.0 app!

Posted via web from A Techno-ly Legal Quickie

Sometimes Law Students Have Fun and Document It

I feel like part of what makes a blog successful is sharing enough of yourself without giving away too much away. Here's a little documented personalization for my readers...

Last weekend I celebrated a fellow Texan's birthday at her apartment. We watched the UT v. Texas Tech football game (Go Longhorns!!!).

*Ok, I have to openly admit here that I was never a huge fan of football or sports teams in college. I think I've become more of a fan now that I've graduated especially because there are so few of UT fans in Chicago. I have to admit, I was never big on the Texas pride, until I moved hundreds of miles away...

So, here's a glimpse into what law students do when they aren't studying, writing briefs, contemplating legal issues or....blogging. Sometimes we have fun with the small number of Texas alumni in Chicago over birthday candles, sometimes.

Kristen and Me

Laura's Birthday Cake

Keep Austin Weird

Laura and Tom

Me, Kristen, Maia, Laura

Kristen and Me

Fair(y) Use You Tube Video

Confused by Copyright? Watch this video. It should help you.

It's ironic that this video was created with Disney video clips because Disney is one of the greatest proponents of increasing the durations of copyright protection.

The Bigger Picture: Amazon Kindle 1984 Deletion

Licensing and Ownership of Digital Books

My Copyright and Trademark professor made a really good point today in class that I wanted to expand on in relation to ownership and licensing books in tangible and digital form.

When a person buys a book, he or she is not actually buying the expression of the ideas, the words on the paper or the concepts within the book. Instead he or she purchases the tangible, physical book. In other words, the sheets of paper, glue, paper or leather binding and ink which make up the book. The owner of the book can resell the book, rip all the pages out, or can build a gigantic bonfire and set the book on fire. There are no laws against taking your aggression out on old school books, law students. Light 'er up.

But digital copies of books complicate everything. When buying a digital copy of George Orwell's 1984, a purchaser doesn't purchase a physical, tangible book. Instead he or she buys a license to read the book. Licenses can have set durations, they can be revoked, and they are contractually created. When a user purchases a book from any one of the major eBook stores he or she agrees to terms of service in order to have access to the book.

Purchasers of licenses are not permitted to resell the book, make copies of the book, share the book with friends, or post a digital form of the book online. Some eBook stores don't even permit a user to print the book. All rights to the digital book are encompassed in a license.

The Big Problem
Here's the big problem. If I go to Barnes and Nobles and I buy 1984, I own the book. Nobody will ever knock on my door and remove my copy of 1984 from my book shelf. Even if Barnes and Nobles accidentally sold me an illegal copy of the book, it's still mine and I own it.

What happened in the Amazon.com case is a little bit complicated, so let me explain. Amazon sells books and various other items. Amazon sells an eReader called the Amazon Kindle that allows users to download eBooks to their Kindle's for the cost of the digital license.

According to CNET, a publisher illegally made for purchase on Amazon's Kindle website 1984 and Animal Farm. Both books were still under copyright in the U.S., yet Kindle users were able to download the illegal digital copies of the books to their Kindles. The true copyright owner and publisher sued Amazon for copyright infringement. The copyright owners sough injunctive relief in the form of removal of all of the illegal copies of 1984 and Animal Farm from Amazon Kindle users' devices. Thus, the books magically disappeared. Why?

The minute a user purchases an eBook, his or her rights are defined under a license. The purchaser does not own a tangible product, but rather a license to use the product.

What does this mean for licensing rights? How many other items will magically disappear from our virtual bookshelves? What does this mean for privacy rights?

The Bigger Picture

It concerns me that a court of law can order a company to (a) keep records of all the books purchased by purchasers and (b) grant injunctive relief in the form of removal of digital books.

For example, my professor asserted, "If I had a similiar case to this, I'd definitely demand removal of my digital copyrighted works from user's computers, Kindles or devices! I'd point to this as precedent! Who wouldn't? I'd probably win." That's frightening thought.

Did the court just set a precedent for digital copyright and licensing? If somebody in copyrights at your favorite online music store screws up the copyright on your favorite album, will your music disappear as well? Maybe your movies or software too? Do you really own anything digital? Would we even be questioning ownership rights as it relates to removal/deletion of your books, movies and music 20 years ago? Nope.

On that note, I find it utterly ironic that the removed books were copies of 1984 and Animal Farm. It's all very reminicent of a modern day McCarthy era book burning, except this is the Digital Age and we do it remotely and label it "Delete".

Thoughts?

Don't call us losers, call us writers.

Another awesome Social Media Law Student post. Read it here! It's called: Your Private Parts and Behavioral Advertising. Did you know your Gmail account is free for a reason? That cookies store your information and share it with advertisers? Your social networking sites where you plaster photos of yourself, private information like your age, race, sexual orientation, religion - is all free game in the world of advertising? Are emails with Confidentiality Notices private?

Check out the post to find out! Happy Reading!

Copyright and Contributions

Old Copyright Law says that when you hire someone to work for you as a contractor, if you have control - you own the copyright. For example, say I want to hire someone to write a play and everything in the play, I must approve. I have the final word and I make any and all decisions as the author and the person in the ultimate control. But if I work with collaborators, they become my co-authors.

What about when there are several contributors who are subject to a final decision by the main editor, like I'm a writer for Social Media Law Student and I am subject to a final decision by Rex Gradeless. Are the writers for SMLS, co-authors, joint authors, or independent contractors entitled to all rights in our own work? How does copyright law define who owns SMLS and what rights contributors have?

The Seventh Circuit recognized this problem in Gaiman v. McFarlande (360 F. 3d 644) when it held that Neil Gaiman, a comic book script writer, sued Todd McFarlane, an illustrator of comic book characters for Copyright Infringement. Gaiman was a contracted employee who McFarlane hired to create a script for an issue of The Spawn. Needless to say, the court found that Gaiman and McFarlane had to work together to creator the characters in the comic book and without one author's creative work, the whole entire work would not have existed. The court ultimatey held a joint authorship in the work and were both entitled to rights under Copyright law.

From this analysis, I can pressume that if I work with the author of a blog on a post, we are co-authors because without both of our input, the entire whole would not be realized. So, if Rex Gradeless and I sat down and came up with concepts for a blog post then we both input ideas, opinions and changes, this would be a joint work and therefore subject to joint authorship. However, Rex and I don't sit down each week when I write my blog contributions, but he does edit all of the blog contributions. Does Rex own rights in my contributions?

In Community for Creative Non-Violent v. Reid (490 U.S. 730), the Supreme Court held that an artist, Reid, hired by an organization, the CCNV, was entitled to joint authorship of a statute he designed and created for CCNV. The court reasoned that Reid was an independent contractor and not CCNV's employee, therefore he was not subject to "work for hire" status under Copyright Law. The court reasoned that CCNV did not provide Reid with any of the benefits or opportunities it had provided its other employees and therefore could not claim sole rights in the statute. The court also reasoned that CCNV did not have sole control over the creation of the statute but accepted input and contributions made by Reid. The court stated this was sufficine to allow Reid the opportunity to rights of co-authorship.

When looking at the concept of Copyright in this sense I wonder if a court would evaluate the entire whole or each individual article. For example, without my contributions to SMLS, SMLS would still exist. However, the whole of the website would not be realized as it is today without my contributions. But without Rex's editing, would my contributions as a whole be all that different from their current state?

It's important to note that I do not have any rights of authorship in SMLS. I own only what I post, even if edited by Rex. If I had control and access to change parts of the website then my statuts as a writer with rights solely in my work would change. Whereas, if Rex removed paragraphs from my articles and added his own input, his rights in my work would change as well. However, Rex changes very little in my posts and I do not have any control or access to changing SMLS as a website. But I think it's interesting to note how easily the lines of authorship, joint authorship and co-authorship can be blurred when you work in a collaborative, contributory setting. Any thoughts?

Jing, OmniGraffle, Snow Leopard

First there was email, then there was the Instant Message, the Voice Chat, Voice Over IP and now Video Chat and YouTube. Now, there is screen capturing and video conferencing.

I am so excited about my recent discovery. Jing.com allows users to capture, narrate and explain from their computer screens in five minute flash videos for free! The free version allows users to upload their video Screencast.com and share it with the world via a link, embedded on their blog, or via an email. Pretty cool stuff if you ask me.

I personally have invested the $14.95 per year for the paid version which allows users to save videos to MPEG-4 formats and edit them in iMovie, QuickTime (on Snow Leopard) and upload videos to YouTube. The paid for version also allows a user to capture screen views and has webcam capabilities built in. (This is a really nice feature for presentations and tutorials.)

I'm pretty excited about my discovery so I am going to give you all a quick tutorial of my new favorite program, OmniGraffle. (Think MS Visio but for your Mac and with some awesome features.) I am still learning OmniGraffle, so I thought it would be fun to show a video of some of Jing's capabilities while narrating.

I'd also like to offer some congrats to Apple with the release of Snow Leopard. I purchased Snow Leopard this weekend and I've seen a big improvement overall of my MacBook's performance. I love the new QuickTime and I keep discovering tiny little cool things built into the new OS I was not expecting. So yay Apple!

One more time...

So the post I posted on this blog, has now been republished by SMLS at their blog. So take a moment to visit both if you feel so inclined! :) Here's a link!

P.S. I just turned in my Herzog Paper and I really think I should be celebrating...

New SMLS Post: Locating Sex Offenders on your iPhone!

There's a new post up at Social Media Law Student about an iPhone app that will let you locate Sex Offenders. There are some interesting legal issues that arise from it. I hope you will all take a look at it.

A Legal Perspective: Google Fast Flip

I'm a new aggregator, RSS feed reader junkie. I cannot get enough of the stuff I love. So today when Google quietly announced Google Fast Flip - I was a bit skeptical. In reality, it's really amazing!

Here's what Google has said:

Today we're adding a new experiment to Google Labs: Google Fast Flip, accessible at fastflip.googlelabs.com. Fast Flip is a new reading experience that combines the best elements of print and online articles. Like a print magazine, Fast Flip lets you browse sequentially through bundles of recent news, headlines and popular topics, as well as feeds from individual top publishers. As the name suggests, flipping through content is very fast, so you can quickly look through a lot of pages until you find something interesting. At the same time, we provide aggregation and search over many top newspapers and magazines, and the ability to share content with your friends and community. Fast Flip also personalizes the experience for you, by taking cues from selections you make to show you more content from sources, topics and journalists that you seem to like. In short, you get fast browsing, natural magazine-style navigation, recommendations from friends and other members of the community and a selection of content that is serendipitous and personalized.

From a legal perspective, this new product is ingenious. Part of the problem with Google News is that it's an aggregation service that aggregates the headlines, photos and story line leads of an article from a published website and shares it with the world. The problem is that the writers and publishers of those stories have complained that Google is infringing on their copyrights and taking the "heart" of their story. However, Google has argued that it increases readership to publishers by allowing them to click on links which direct the reader to the publisher's website. There have been some nasty legal battles over content and Google has settled with a number of publishers to license out their headlines, photos, and storyline leads. But I think Google might have found a way around copyright infringement with this new technology.

As you can see, Google has allowed the entire page with its advertisements viewable. Google has stated that it's partnered with the New York Times, The Washington Post, Salon, Fast Company, ProPublica and Newsweek to provide information. Google and its partners will share the revenue from the advertisements. Google hopes this will allow readers to read content faster and generate greater revenue for ads. By partnering with publishers, Google is combating the base for publisher's argument over Google News. Publishers were arguing that Google hindered advertisement revenue sales by taking the "heart" of their stories and publishing it on their news aggregator, Google News. Overall, if Google Fast Flip catches on, it could replace Google News.

Google Fast Flip is customizable, sortable and easy to use. You can sort news by a variety of topics, by news publisher, by topic or even by just read what Google Recommends. It feels just like a scrolling newspaper! It's really incredible!

What do you think? Thoughts?

New Social Media Law Student Post!

I just had another article post on the Social Media Law Student blog. It's about Sexting. If you are are saying to yourself, "Wait, what?" Then maybe you should read the post and find out! Happy Reading!

Adventures of UT Graduates

A very good friend of mine, Tressa, leaves for Rwanda and the Peace Corps on September 27th. Tressa, with her huge heart, love for Africa and very direct personality with never take no for an answer personality is going to land in Africa for the second time. (Her first trip to Africa was on a Fulbright Scholarship to Yoruba where she bestowed on me and everyone of our friends the great importance of Africa and Africans as a continent and as a people.

I wish I could say my adventures as a law student have brought such good to the world, but honestly, they've brought more self-induced headaches than anything. haha. I get great satisfaction from seeing my friends become good people and do great things. Tressa has inspired me to look at my law degree as not just another set of letters behind my name but as a way of giving back in whatever way I can. I may love IT & Privacy Law and it may have very little to do with changing the world, but ultimately I am determined to find a way for technology to touch the lives of everyone. I really do believe it can and it will bridge the gaps between economic, cultural, communication and societal barriers. I know the "what" of my hopes and beliefs, I just wish I knew the "how".

Thank you Tressa for inspiring me to ask the right questions.

In case you are wondering what the Cyberspace Law Journals are...

My professor requires us to write a journal related to what we learned in class and I decided to put mine online for (a) easy access and (b) to share! So if you are interested what I'm learning in my Cyberspace Law Class...now you get access, links, and maybe even PHOTOS! Feel free to browse if you're curious, I'll try to be descriptive as possible to describe any event or situation that happened inside class to give perspective to the posts.

Enjoy!

Positive Thought

I really believe in the power of positive thought to the extent that it can change attitudes. I don't really believe the world or anyone wants to tell an eager student with passion "No." When I read scholarship applications for the Academic Services Liberal Arts Scholarship, I remember the ones I found most inspiring were ones that had a truly positive outlook on the situation at hand. It's one thing to be down on your luck, it's another thing to be defeated.

I never thought my desire to learn would take me so far, but it has. I've found often that the more I research, the more I know and the more I know, the better opinions and thoughts I can form about the world around me. It's one thing to sit in a classroom and listen to a lecture, it's another to yearn for knowledge to the extent that you will explore it and live it. I've always been a visual learner who learned best when challenged with something physical through trial and error.

Life is a bit like trial and error. Sometimes you work so hard at something and it all falls apart. Sometimes you succeed, sometimes you fail, but inevitably learning from your mistakes is the key. With positive thought, you can take even the worst situations and find a way to turn them around, thus altering your outlook, your attitude and your feelings toward a situation.

Do I want to be a lawyer? Yes. Do I want to be employed when I graduate? Yes. How do I develop my skills to make sure I'm more desireable on paper than the next person? Stand out. How do you stand out? Be unique, think outside the box, develop skills you can use not only in your career but in your life. Stop waiting for opportunity to come knocking, find an open window and crawl through. Make friends and network - smile. Think positive.

Ok, that all seems very simple, but maybe that's just it. A good attitude, a better personality, and a smile can go a long way.