Books,novels, stories, articles, music, art, and pretty much anything you can think of can we found on the web. Is this a good thing? In many senses yes, but in some cases no. Some people choose the easy way through looking, buying and searching for things. I for one, search the web or my IPhone’s Kindle application for books before I go to the book store or library to rent or purchase it. Is this fair or does it raise issues. No it’s not fair and yes it does raise issues. But I do this because I try to make things convenient for me. If I can find a novel I need for school, online or in my Kindle application, why would I even bother to have the actual book version of it. Looking for things and especially books on the web is easy and convenient. We as a culture have become so digitalized and oriented around the web, that physical text really does not matter. Unless it’s the old manuscripts of bibles or such important pieces. These again are all scanned into computer and people around the globe may have access to it. But when working with such scanning and copying, the issue of copyright comes into play. This has become such a big and worldwide issue because original work is being stolen by others and treated as there own. Music copyrights are a big issue that artist struggle with on a regular basis but it’s a part of the web life.
The computer and the web are two things that were created by humans but are smarter then 80% of the world’s population simply because of technology. Without the computer, many of us around the world would be unable to search the web, do homework, communicate with one another, do our daily jobs and do extensive research for projects and other activities. The computer and the web have become a regular part of our life. With virtually almost anything under our finger tips, some may only have a small place to argue with how the web and internet are bad.
Yeah it seems that the digital technology available today can be difficult to stay away from. It does seem like it could definitely be a favorable alternative for someone to download a book online for free rather than buy it in a bookstore. One thing though for school is that it seems nice to actually have a book cause then you can make notes and mark in it. With a digital book on the web it may not be as convenient for this type of note taking.
You mentioned some of the problems that arise with copyright infringement, such as an “original work being stolen by others and treated as their own.” This definitely seems to be a problem. However, our readings have raised another issue, which is the fact that the scanning process may alter a work and corrupt it. So essentially you have people claiming the rights to someone else’s work, and then to top it off, posting an altered version of that text and claiming it as the author’s original work.
I suppose this also relates to the practice of creating condensed versions of a work, as discussed in Carlin Romano’s article, “Will the Book Survive Generation Text.” While proponents of condensed texts claim that they “in no way detract from the spirit of the original,” isn’t that ultimately up to the original author to decide? Authors put a lot of time and thought into the material they include in their texts. I’m pretty sure most of these authors would be spinning in their graves if they found out that huge chunks of their works were being tossed or if entire lines were accidentally lopped off from each page.