Pictures that Lie

The image I chose was called "Trotsky's Elimination Image." I'm fairly ignorant of what exactly one can do to photos, but in this image, Communist party officials have "erased" Trotsky after he lost the party's favor. Somehow, the Soviets erased Trotsky's image and added a dark spot so that maybe people would not notice that he had been in the original picture. I think this is very harmful becuase this was used as yet another piece of propaganda in the Soviet era. The Soviet officials were interested in rewriting the past, and with the ability to edit pictures, they could give "proof" of their interpretation of past events.

My CLT Experience

Today, we visited CLT. I found it really informative because I didn't really know what the purpose of CLT was or how it could be helpful to me. However, after today's class, I have a much better understanding of CLT.

I learned that CLT has computers and software for video editing as well as for music editing. There are both Macs and PCs there as well as scanners. There is also a work station for publishing web sites. Also, at the information booth, you can check out equipment like digital cameras if it is needed for a class.

In the future, I may use CLT when we start web design in this class. I'm sure I will have questions about it, and the staff there seemed very helpful.

Copyright Law

Today, I learned about copyright laws from Jason Hardin, the Manager of Access Services. I'm going to look at the issue of downloading music from a service like LimeWire.

According to federal copyright law, it is illegal to download from these illicit file-sharing sites. Under federal law, if you want to download music, you should use a recognized "pay site" like Itunes. Downloading and sharing illegally can be very costly. The industry can prosecute those who choose to illegally download.

On the other hand, people who approve of this often justify their actions in various ways. They think, "If I bought this CD, why can't I share it online?" Or they think that it is absurd for the music industry to charge $16 for a CD that cost very little to make. Whatever the reason people use, illicit file sharing is a prevalent problem among music consumers.

Personally, I believe that it is immoral to download music you have not paid for. When this occurs, it is like stealing from all those who worked to write, record, and produce the work.


Copyright Law by Kayleigh Overman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.