Free Culture vs. Permission Culture

In reading Lessig's book, I found it to be interesting how the whole world of copyright/piracy started. I found the introduction to be quite amusing about the "indifinte space/air" was considered property and no one could trespass. It even went about to court in regards to this. Besides that, what I struck me was the case of Mickey Mouse and the Walt Disney coporation. I never even thought about how Disney had borrowed other ideas and remade it into theirs.

In class on Monday, we discussed the first couple chapters of Lessig's "Free Culture". There's this questioning of what is considered today to be a free culture or a permission culture. I agree with Lessig's argument of Permission Culture. Today, we are in a world where when we want to create something we have to recieve full permission from that of the powerful in order to do so. We live in a world where it is considered a "free culture" but due to the world of media it prevents of from this free culture with the back up of laws and policy, in which, therefore, we call it "permission culture". Not just in the media world but also lies within educational system. Whatever is taken from someone else's ideas or thoughts you must give credit to them. Even taking one simple sentence could lead to terrible consequences. So, I do agree that this world have shift from a culture that was once considered "free" to now "permission".

Plagiarism Experience

It is unsual that a college instructor would have his class plagiarize a paper as 10% of the final grade. Lucky for us, we were given the opportunity to do so. Well, not really lucky. It was not very pleasing to do such thing. On the other hand, it was quite an interesting experience with a lesson learned. Whoever thinks that plagiarizing was easy is definitely wrong. I found this experience to be quite complicated. The difficulty of this project was trying to blend in the voice of yourself and at the same time the voice you're plagiarizing to make them both sound the same.
The tricky part of the experience was trying to plagiarize and fool your classmates of what was and was not plagiarize. I was hard for me to weave in the words of another into mine to sound like me. Who ever read my paper, well, you definitely know that I'm not a good plagiarizer. I would be caught within the first couple sentences. That's why I don't plagiarize.

Ghostwriting Experince

For the ghostwriting project, I decided to write a college application essay prompt for a friend of mine whom I've known since 8th grade. My friend, after graduating highschool, decided not to further his education. Instead, he bounce from job to job not being able to keep a stable career. So you can say, he and I are two completely different person. This is the main reason why I chose him to be the victim of my project.

What I found most difficult in this project was trying to imitate the voice of my friend. Because he had not been in schools for years, his recollection of how to write an essay was blurry. I asked him why he wanted to go back to school. He gave me his reasons. I put them onto the paper. When I was finished, I asked him to give some feedbacks. This was process wasn't very successful. Since he hasn't been in school, he didn't have much opinion but rather mostly agree. It was difficult at this point because I didn't know if the paper sounded like me or like him. I had to push him more to help me out. In the end there was improvements.

I found this project to be interesting at the same time a helpful learning experience for both my friend and of course myself. My friend learned how to write a college essay prompt. I learned how to be a ghostwriter.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism was the talk of this week's lectures. We had some pretty interesting guest speakers sharing their most memorable plagiarize cases they've delt with in the past. The story of the frat pledge was funny. Poor guy but he should have still done his paper instead of taking the risk of plagiarizing. On the other hand, the brain surgeon girl, no sympathy for her at all. It's pretty sad how she had to get her parents to defend her. I really like Adam's technique of approaching the person who plagiarized. He gave the person the chance to explain or asked if there's anything the person wanted to say. There are other instructors who doesn't give the students the chance to explain.

Why do people plagiarize? Answers to this question varies. One reason, as mentioned in class, is scarcity. Some people think they lack the skill and don't have enough time. Another reason is just plain lazy. But whatever reason the person may have, plagiarism is plagiarism. It is wrong and should not be done. If there's a fear of not having the paper done on time or not knowing what to do, they should simply address the situation with the instructor. I'm pretty sure the instructors have some sort of sympathy and will give you an extention.