Wikipedia talk:Education program archive/University of California, Berkeley/Politics of Digital Piracy (Fall 2013)

Project 1 Proposal
Included in the proposal should be:
 * Please hit the edit button on the right and post your 1 paragraph proposals for your project below.
 * whether you are a. doing 2 written projects, the first which is due Oct. 16, and the second at the end of the semester or b. doing a semester-long hands-on project.


 * Please note the guidelines below:
 * Practice is not the objective of the project, but one of the ways to investigate the relevant concepts explored in the class (intellectual property, network architecture, circumvention, hacking, remix, DIY, peer production, etc). You can investigate in any way you want (analysis, practice, fieldwork, etc) and present your results in any format you want (text, video, code, art, a mix of them, etc), as long as you're focused on investigating the concepts and not just practicing for practice's sake. That means the minimal requirements for the project are:
 * 1. You should show why your investigation is relevant to the topics we're discussing in class. If your format does not make that connection clear, you should at least be able to explain it verbally.*
 * 2. You should try to create something. If your entire project was the execution of instructions, that's not good. If it's hard to produce innovative work, but you should at least come up with your own ideas and reflections.

Proposal Entries (post below this)
Project 1 I would like to make a detailed timeline of the history of The Pirate Bay, including all its legal battles and the interplay of Swedish/International copyright law. Finished project can be found here. 169.229.56.238 (talk) 19:07, 3 October 2013 (UTC)link.kb

Project 2 For this project I created a powerpoint summary of the 2012 SOPA/PIPA protests. Found here. 2607:F140:400:B000:6D3F:E8BA:A3B2:2CF (talk) 00:49, 5 December 2013 (UTC)

Aseem Singh Project One Proposal: I would like to delve deeper into the issues of the NSA data storage facilities. I am interested in looking up the background of the data surveillance programs and the origin and applications of the government piracy in the USA. I think I would also like to bring up relevant similar programs, even so far as the extremes of the great firewall of China and possible other internet security monitors enacted by other countries.

Derek Pierce I would like to make an infographic on peer to peer downloading, I would like to look more into how much it is done, the costs of it, etc. and put it all in one place so more people can learn about it.

Sebastian Sadeghi I would like to explore the world of hacking. I want to learn more about hacks and how to create one. I hope to learn how to program them and ultimately develop one on my own by the end of the semester.

Joseph Martin (Proposal 1 of 2) I would like to profile the United States Patents and Trademarks Office and, to some extent, the Dept. of Commerce, it's parent organization. As technologies move from the creators to the mass market, they undergo issues like hacking and infringement or other types of piracy. Since the USPTO is a primary institution for keeping that system in place, I think it would be worthwhile to understand the other branches of Intellectual Property, aside from the most easily infringed-upon copyright. (Proposal 2 of 2) I would like to write about the DMCA. The Digital Millennium Rights Act is one of the cornerstones of modern copyright la and is quite possibly one of the most visible parts of the law, due to the fact that it allows takedowns of websites etc.

Chun Timothy Tsao Proposal for Project 1 of 2 projects: I would like to analyze an ongoing project (that I was briefly part of) called Xlab. It is an app developing project by the Civil Engineering department that aims to revolutionize the way students take surveys. Using Android and iOS platforms for its operating basis, the app will send out pre-programmed survey questions to registered and eligible students to their phones, depending on their location (geo-fences), time of day, and frequency of visiting certain places. I will aim to investigate the issues of balancing privacy and surveillance with the potential implementation of this app into the public. I will also create a hypothetical marketing plan for the project to see, from a utilitarian standpoint, whether its benefits outweigh its potential issues.

Sergio Gonzalez I am interested in analyzing The World Intellectual Property Organization and how they function. Specifically, I am interested in the economic effects it has on other countries and the possible exploitation of developing countries' ideas by developed countries.

Henry Wright I am interested in creating a video tutorial on how to securely surf the web utilizing programs such as privoxy, tor, and virtual machine. I'm going to try to have the video length be around 15-20 min or less and then release it on YouTube using a CC licence.

Andrea Haro: I am interested in doing a semester long video project covering what "hacking" really is. The purpose of the video would be to inform people that hacking is not just a negative and criminal activity. I want the video to include facts about hacking and video clips of various "cool" hacks. For this I would have to research the hacking culture and find various videos to show all of the cool stuff people are doing by hacking!

Jonathan Casian - project proposal. I would like to create a video tutorial on how to browse the web using tor and onion networks. The video would include a brief introduction on internet privacy in general. I will then upload it to YouTube, Daily Motion, or Vimeo. Another idea, perhaps for the second project, is to make a video tutorial on the distinctions between the various ways of legally protecting one's work, trademarks, etc., exposing myths about them, and finally explaining the process of copyrighting one's own creative work (particularly using the example of copyrighting and publishing novels) and the kinds of rights/protection granted when copyrighting works.

Olivia Tang-Kong, Proposal for Project 1 of 2 Written Projects: I am interested in exploring the role of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in both consumers and producers’ lives. I would like to explore if this government agency, aimed at protecting the consumer, has any particular political agendas that have been evident in recent years. I am also interested in exploring the economic impact this organization has had on the U.S.

Arash Akhavan

I am interested in Contributing to an open source Content Management System (CMS) designed for Web site publishing. These CMSs make it easier for people with limited IT and Web knowledge to publish their content online. I have already worked on e107 and SPIP and I'm going to either work more on these two or get involved in a new project.

Lancy Zhang I am interested in making a video/short movie on countries who have strict censorships. I would like to explore the history, background, and reason behind their current censorship, how their censorship works/what is being censored/in what way, and their future prospects in loosening or tightening the censorships.

Lisa Sinow - I would like to research the laws surrounding people's privacy and protecting people's privacy when involving the internet. I think it would be interesting to compare it to privacy and surveillance laws for the non-cyber world (such as security cameras at the mall) to how they are the same or different when they are both intended to protect personal privacy.

Andy Cheng - I plan on doing an analysis of the FTC, also known as the Federal Trade Commission. I'm going to provide a summary of the background of the group as well as analyze how effective the existence of the FTC has been at achieving its raison d'être. I also plan on going into detail about patents and FTC’s roles in managing them.

Patrick Edward O'Toole The Patriot Act is a U.S. law passed after the 2001 terrorist attacks with goals to strengthen domestic security and broaden the powers of law-enforcement agencies. The Patriot Act has been extremely controversial. Supporters claim that it's been instrumental in stopping terrorists, while critics say that it gives the Government too much power, threatens civil liberties and undermines democracy.


 * What is the Patriot Act(stated purpose and design)
 * Supporting Arguments
 * Criticisms
 * How it works
 * Does it work

Bo Cho - Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) is a multinational treaty set up for the purposes of establishing international standards for intellectual property rights enforcement. ACTA aims to establish an international legal framework or foundation for counterfeit goods, generic medicines, and copyright infringement on the internet. It also creates a new international governing body besides the existing organizations such as WTO, UN, or WIPO. The agreement was signed by eight countries in October 2011and Mexico as well as the EU joined in 2012.

I would like to do 2 projects this semester, the first one being an overview of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). I plan on providing a summary of the association's duties as well as other intricate details.
 * Mihaela Panayotova***

Jonathan Casian... For the second project, i would like to find a particular legal case related to piracy and a particular individual where the individual was fined immense and irrational amounts of money for downloading music, movie, or software. I would like to summarize and assess the case.

For my second project, I would like to present a thorough analysis of one of the most famous contemporary copyright infringement cases: The Associated Press vs. Fairey. This case came about during Obama's presidential campaign and the Obama "Hope" poster, created by Shephard Fairey. The central argument of the case was that the photograph used by Shepherd was one shot by Mannie Garcia, a freelance photographer for the Associated Press. The Associated Press demanded compensation for the use of their photograph in the Obama campaign.
 * Mihaela Panayotova-Project 2 Proposal***