My First Experience With Copyright Infringment

Last year, at the end of units in U.S. History class, we had to do Student Initiated Assignments. We could choose any topic related to the unit we had just covered. Then we could put together any kind of presentation we wanted. At the end of the Gilded Age unit, I decided to make a short documentary video on Andrew Carnegie. It only included pictures, text slides, music, and voice overs, but doing research on Carnegie, capturing audio, and editing took around three hours as I recall. After I finished, I uploaded it to Youtube, sent the link to my teacher, and never returned to the video again...

That is, until Thanksgiving weekend, when I got a message from a stranger. The person wrote: "Hi There. Can you tell me what software you used to build your video? I am impressed and would like to use it too." At first I was very confused, because I didn't even realize I had allowed the public to view my video. Then it dawned on me that I had actually made an informative and reasonably catchy video that could benefit students trying to learn more about Carnegie, and others who are curious to see what people on Youtube have to say about him. For the first time in just over a year, I decided to check out my video. I watched it and realized that I had made it for entertainment purposes, so I created a couple of unnecessary text slides. While I was mocking my rather stupid intro, I looked down at my view count. I over nearly 450 views! While this is a tiny number relative to the millions some videos get, I haven't uploaded a video with nearly this many hits. 

Then I thought, This silly first ten seconds takes away from this otherwise interesting documentary. I remembered we were taught about a Youtube video editor in this class. I figured out this basic software in a couple minutes and removed a little from the beginning and end. The new edits are finalized and the old version can no longer be seen by anyone but me, I assumed. Here it is (by the way, hitting the "Like" button wouldn't hurt):



I wanted to see if my video would be high on the list of search results. First I searched "Andrew Carnegie" and I was able to find my video on the third page of results. Not bad, I'd say, considering that Andrew Carnegie is one of the most prominent figures in American history. Next I tried "Vertical Integration," where my video was fifth on the first page. Finally, I typed in "Andrew Carnegie Vertical Integration," and my video appeared first on the list. Right under it, however, was a video with a cover picture of stacks of money, a picture which looked awfully similar to the one I used in my video. I clicked on it, and sure enough, somebody reuploaded my video. This one came before the edits so if you want to see the outtakes, you may:


I messaged the user and requested that they take down the video, and I filed a copyright claim to Youtube. It did anger me that somebody would plagiarize my video and take credit for it, but at the same time, I do see it as a compliment because somebody thought it was good enough to want to take credit for. They seem to have been doing an Andrew Carnegie series based on their channel's videos. I filed this claim on Saturday, Novermber 24, so I expect Youtube to take action soon.

Update: So, as you probably saw, the video had been removed by Youtube! Too bad you won't get to see the intro now.

CAP Congress

I will admit that while I did not have a blast during the week of CAP Congress, I thought I was a good learning experience. I realized how difficult it is for a bill to become a law. Even in CAP which seems to be almost entirely liberal, it was still not easy to pass bills. The food MOCWAS brought in on Wednesday represents the bigger idea that bill sponsors will do everything they can to get their bills passed. In Congress, it was difficult to do something with all six bills in two days. We did not really have time to focus on each word of each bill, but there were clearly loopholes, which swayed my vote. At least once I would have voted differently if more time had been spent improving the bill. I was bored because rarely was a vote in doubt, even on amendments. Nonetheless, I now have a better idea of how Congress works and how every little word in a bill can be subject to debate.

The Real Fall

Today I biked on the Capital Crescent Trail and got a great chance to see fall. Too bad I didn't have any kind of camera with me, because it was a nice ride. I don't know if it's just me, but I feel as though trees are losing their leaves at a wide range of times. When I did my "Capture the Fall" video, I was having some difficulty finding many leaves. Some trees still had all their leaves. But then some had no leaves at all. In the areas with many trees, leaves were coming down everywhere, including on my head. In hindsight, this weekend would have probably been a better time to make my video.

Capture the Fall

I created my "Capture the Fall" video by going around and taking short (usually around 10 seconds) shots. I tried to bring them to life a bit by moving around, just so that it wouldn't be a still frame collage. I took shots of everything that could relate in any way to fall, or even the outdoors for that matter. The flower I briefly showed in it does not really relate specifically to fall, but I thought it was a nice shot to include. I took shots from different heights as well, to "Capture the Fall" from different perspectives. My favorite shot was dropping the iPhone, which I used to film the video, into the leaves. Until I put it into iMovie and slowed it down as much as possible, I did not know how it would look. I elected to leave background sound in just because of the crunch sound of leaves. I ended up with well over a minute of footage, and had to leave out some shots and cut some short.

Local Passion

THE BLACKOUT RETURNS

I've been waiting for five years now! DC United is finally back in the playoffs!

I've never thought Major League Soccer was one of the best soccer leagues in the world, nor have I thought DC United was one of the best clubs in the world, but I have been a fan of this team for about eight years. While I have started to pay more attention to the English Premier League and a little less to the MLS, I've stayed attached to United. The reason for this is the local passion. Soccer is hardly recognized in the U.S., and most people who do enjoy soccer keep up with international teams and leagues, and understandably so, as the quality is significantly higher. But this is what keeps me a fan of United. There is a section of fans in RFK Stadium, who spend entire games singing and jumping. Sometimes I'm right it, sometimes I by my TV. The fans have so much passion, but so do the players. Few individuals in the league are making enough money to be set for life. What most of these players are after is not a celebrity status or tons of money, they want to pursue the game they love. A

As you can see by what I wrote, I still to this day don't know exactly why I love DC United so much. All I know is there is something about the passion of the players and the fans, which makes supporting this team very exciting.