My Big Mouth

It seems that I am returning to my regular blog schedule of about once a week. So what has been going? Well, I went on three interviews for part-time jobs, and got two offers. Both of them are semi-light on hours, so I am thinking of taking both of them. One of them allows me pretty flexible schedule and does not require me to be on-site all the time. I am pretty excited because both relate to my new HCI specialization. They involve interviewing users about what information they need in reports that are generated from databases. So a lot of it involves gathering user requirements and then translating those into queries and reports. Something I definitely want to be doing after I graduate.

I dropped one of my classes, 617, intellectual property strategy. Seeing that I have two classes at the b-school that will start at the end of October, I didn't feel I could handle the workload. Plus it really didn't relate to what I wanted to do but did relate to the recent occurrences with Phill and my plagarizing classmate. So there have been some developments about those events. If you recall, Phill was contacted by some asshole web design firm called Pixel Pops saying he was in violation of their copyright because the website for his business resemebled one of their designs. Long story short, Phill changed his site so he is no longer on their hit list. But he got the following interesting response from them:

Thank you Phill. All looks fine and we have no more concerns regarding your site as it's clearly different now. And yes, I've seen your friends blog...not exactly sure I understand his hatred in his message to us. Regardless, thank you for doing the right thing.

All my best,

~XXXXX

The "friends blog" is mine, the one you are reading right now. How the PixelPops guy found it, I have no idea. Well, my "hatred" (which I don't think it is unless he thinks any criticism is "hatred") involves the following:

1. Copyright protects the original content, selection, and arrangement of works. It does not protect the ideas behind the work. Since Phill did not use any of their source code, pictures, graphics, and text - then what exactly is the original content that Phill is violating the copyright for? Basically, PixelPop is claiming that the idea of having a small picture is the left top corner, the idea to have a picture faded in the background behind the title of the site, and the idea having the phone number vertical along the left side are the sole and lone property of PixelPops and nobody else. First off, as I said earlier, these are ideas, which are not protected by copyright. Secondly, they are not even original ideas. Funny, I don't see PixelPops going after Amazon for having top level navigation links because since the idea is in a PixelPops design, according to PixelPops logic, it is theirs and theirs only. Larry Lessig gives a great example of this idiotic logic in his book, Free Culture. Back in the first half of the 20th century when commerical aviation was still in its infancy, farmers took the airlines to court saying that air planes could not fly over their farms because their farm property included not only the land, but the entire sky above it. Eventually, the Supreme Court ruled against the farmers, saying their claims revolted against common sense. In my opinion, PixelPops claims revolt against common sense. Copyright does not protect ideas, especially ones that are not even their own.

2. I have a very strong suspicion that Pixel Pops cannot prove in any way, shape or form, that they have lost any business due to Phill's alleged infringement. So if it is not costing you anything, then why the hell go after someone. For example, I take the recyclable bottles and cans from the kitchen down to the front porch area to put them in our recycling bins. Occasionally, some homeless person comes by and takes out all the soda cans or plastic bottles out (for what I assuming is to claim the 5 cent recycling rebate). Now technically since the bins are still on the front porch (along with a couple chairs and bikes), the cans and bottles are still ours and we could, in theory, go get the recycling rebate for them. So yeah the homeless person is "stealing" from us. I could be like PixelPops and go after whatever homeless person is taking our cans but since I wasn't turning the cans in anyway, his theft is not costing me anything. As I have stated previously, Phill was not stealing and, in addition to that, not costing this design firm any money. Even if it was the case that it was costing them money, well that is the cost of doing business. I am pretty sure Apple is not happy that other companies are making their mp3 players look as much like the iPod as possible. But that is how business works. Once you come out with something that works and makes money, it is only time that somebody does an one-off version of it to capitalize on the popularity.

3. People in the design and creative industries should be fostering innovation, not hindering it by claiming "copyright infringment" to shut other people down. when no violation exists. In my opinion, it is very hypocritical for a design company to claim its work is being stolen when much of their designs rely on many concepts and yes, ideas, that were taken from others. In my HCI graduate student opinion, I don't think Pixel Pops designs are not worth anywhere near the price they are charging because I think any semi-skilled web designer with a couple of hours of time could create something much more original and creative.

If my claims consitute "hatred" and then so be it. I think they consitute legitimate criticism, which is actually protected by something called "Freedom of Speech." Many somebody at PixelPops should look it up.

But getting to people who actually do steal other people's work, there have some recent developments in the case of my classmate who stole his website code from my friend, Zahra. These developments are partly because of, yes, my big mouth. Anyway, I gave Zahra a heads up and turns out she was already notified about it by someone else. Long story short, Zahra laid the smackdown on this thief's mophat shizmet (as a former friend of mine would say) and he changed his site to wipe away the main identifying features from Zahra's code (he also finally got around to taking out Zahra's name in the source code, which including a link to Zahra's resume - like I said earlier, he did a really bad job of stealing). But since I blogged about it and it sorta made its way through the information grapevine here at SI, many more people now know of this incident, and it turns out it was not the offender's first time. For a previous class, he had copied his contributions out of reports from the previous year (ironically one of the reports he copied was from the team Zahra was apart of). His teammates had to rewrite those parts so none of his plagarized work ended up in their final products. Even more audacious, is in his portfolio there is some work for that class (which he apparently had no role in producing) that includes a picture of the final product. That picture has been cropped to exclude his team memebers who actually did do the work and he makes no mention of them in the description. Yeah all and all, a no-class, no-talent, and total jerk-off thing to do.

Well karma apparently does work because since many people now know of his despicable behavior, he is being ostracized and is unable to find other people to work with. One thing I really enjoy about SI is the emphasis on collaborative teamwork. Not only does it provide valuable experience for industry and the real world, it helps create friendships and bonds. Well apparently many other people feel the same way I do about this person, and don't want to create any bonds with him anymore. I would feel sorry for him but then again, he did bring this on himself. But I don't relish the outcome. This event has triggered some discussion about copyright and plagarism in general which, with a little help, will bring asome positive results. There are some workshops and other things being planned to address this issue to make sure people are well aware of what is plagarizing versus what is fair-use. Anything that makes people more aware must have some redeeming qualities.

But this event has shown me that I shit-talk people alot. For those of you keeping track (probably none of you) this makes the 3rd SI classmate (who I have never identified by name and have remained anonymous) that I have chewed out over my blog. Seeing that I have been at SI for a year, that strikes me as pretty high. Perhaps I shouldn't be such a gossipy, shit-talking hussy and keep my opinions to myself at times. Nobody likes (well nobody should like) hearing shit about other people. Although I have every right to say it, I think I should put a lid on shit-talking people for a while, even if (like my stealing classmate) they really deserve it. I suppose it will make me a more pleasant person and not so judgemental, blow-harded, or boisterous. So yeah, I vow to keep my trash-talking to a minimum from now on and focus on more positive things.

Disclaimer: This vow not in effect when I am blistering drunk.

Until next time - Peace.