The Case For Copyright Reform - Chapter 2

 I think copyright issues have been a problem for a while. I doubt there is a person who has never pirated anything or maybe at least tried to.  There are quite a few rather funny (and sad..) clips out there demonstrating how "bad" pirating is. For example this one (link). Too bad, I suppose I am a kleptomaniac at this point.

I think that one of the most important issues that the Pirate Party discusses is privacy. Although I have not heard of anyone getting punished for pirating. However, here is a rather grim article about the Estonian Organization for Copyright Protection. It seems to try and somehow scare people away from pirating, comparing it to capturing the movie in a movie theatre using a smart phone. The article also encourages anyone that has any knowledge about a "pirate criminal" to report it immediately. And it also mentions that Estonians on a larger scale do not understand that pirating is somehow "wrong". This article was published in May of 2021, in the midst of a global pandemic when people were probably more desperate than ever to have some entertainment.

I agree with the Pirate Party that copyright violations by private people (non-corporations) can not be tracked without violating their privacy. And I will not even mention the "I have nothing to hide!" crowd. Privacy is not about hiding, it is more about not being watched 1984-style.

I would very much like to see that in the future, everyone is able to share media with their loved ones without being "a pirate". Or whatever corporations try to equate pirating to. You wouldn´t download a car now, would you?

Review of "Challenges of The Global Information Society"

 At the beginning, Himanen brings out 10 global trends that he has noticed. I must say, pretty much all of these are still important topics today. I think the problem of population ageing is also very prevalent in Estonia. I also agree with all the reform values of the European model - however, I think that trying to keep up with all these values may be a rather difficult chore. In this part Himanen compares some of the values of those of Christian religion. I would say that yes, Europe and especially the EU is built on those standards, however, I think religion and basing standards and morals on it has become less prevalent.

I´ve heard a lot of people in Estonia saying that they are unsure whether they can ever stop working and retire - because the population of Estonia is ageing very quickly. To add, some professions have the problem of no young people wanting to join (teachers, for example). I think Himanen´s worries on the topic are thus very much still prevalent today.

He also talks about how education is the key to equalizing the society and how for example in Silicon Valley, the education gap between families of different financial backgrounds has become prevalent. I could not agree more, to be honest. I feel that education obviously is a huge privilege, but at the same time giving the privilege to someone should not be based on finance. 

I think that Finland has very much succeeded with their education system. They are always very high on the PISA test, usually following Estonia. To be fair, I find it hard to understand why Estonia keeps topping the charts of the PISA test... Sometimes it feels like our country is not putting enough effort and resources into education. I guess it proves that not everything is about money, however, it does help a whole lot...

Himanen does not only want to ensure that education (in the traditional sense) is available to everyone, he also wants to further promote self-learning by giving free access to as much information as possible.

He also analyzes work-life balance issues and how to have people be able to work until retiring age. I have not found this to be too much of an issue. Finland has more issues with problems like obesity and such, however, I think that may be due to Estonia´s Soviet period having lessened the amount of consumption. Thus, Estonia will probably be in a similar situation in a few years´ time. I found the sex bit hilarious, however, I think that if a country ever tried to advertise having more sex directly, I would personally take it more as a call to reproduction...

I think in general all of these issues very much still apply to Finland, Estonia and even the wider world. However, as there are so many issues, there is also no easy solution. Himanen does say what a government should do to avoid these problems, however, he does not specify how it should be done. This probably is not the goal of this writing either way, but I think that most of these problems are even more complex than they may seem at first glance.

In Estonia, at least, lately there has been a lot of talk about online journalism sites trying to make their ends meet. I personally dislike the pages from the get-go: the privately used sites are often full of ads and on top of that, maybe around 90% of the articles are actually readable for someone who isn´t paying for a subscription. Most subscriptions do not take away the ads and only allow the user to read the full articles. 

This has lead to many people sharing the full articles with others online. I have myself read quite a few of those, as I do not own a subscription for any online journalism site. Usually I get my news off of ERR, a news site that is completely ad-free and free to use. They have a lot of good quality content. For example, Delfi is seemingly half-way filled with articles like "10 things men need to know about women". And I mean, I do not mind it but when I am browsing news I am usually looking for other types of information. I think I could go on a rant about the quality of the content - it is never really that good and I do not enjoy seeing so many clickbait titles.  

I probably can´t think of a good way for an online journalism page to make enough money to "survive" - I can´t really support them myself. However, I would like to see a situation where people who pay to read their content do not have to watch ads. I mean, it is obvious - not everyone uses adblock (and some people even think it to be unethical; I think overusing ads is the unethical thing here).  

I also believe that private media is still really important - only having national media feels like something out of North Korea. However, the online journalism pages have to now figure out how to stay afloat.  

I think one of the key problems that the online journalism websites face today is that the younger generations do not read as much news (probably). Still, I see almost no way for them to improve since it seems that they are not capable of being with even less ads or creating a constant flow of good quality content.  

I decided to visit Delfi without adblock and clicked on the very first article they had available to read. The article was created by Kroonika, a yellow magazine portion of Delfi. It was about a woman getting stuck in a burning building and passing out in the ambulance..

As you can see, there are five ads on my screen at the same time and most of them are in the middle, so that while the reader is reading the text using a touchscreen they may easily click on one of the ads (and thus generate revenue for Delfi).

Pre-Internet technologies

Public Telephone Booths

When was the last time you used a public telephone booth? But when did you last see one? For me, it must have been around first grade (2009). Back then, I did not have my own phone yet and my mother had asked me to call her whenever I got to school, since the route there was rather long. I also remember having a phone card. I only got my own phone in second grade, when most payphones had been already taken down.

William Gray was the designer of the first phone booth, created in 1889. It might have looked something like this:

The first telephone booth; https://thebronxchronicle.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/1st-pay-phone-booth.jpg

To be fair, it looks very luxurious and fit for a bank, where it was located. Since then, house phones have become more and more common. In addition, most people now have their own personal phones which can easily fit in a pocket. And, most people do not even carry physical money with them. 

All of this means, in short, that no-one has probably seen a usable payphone in Tallinn for over 10 years. 

Computer Monitors

Karl Ferdinand Braun was the one to create the first computer monitor in 1897. It used a cathode ray tube to emit light when electrons stroke it. The monitor was used to display colorless vector graphs. Later, the color cathode ray was implemented which allowed to display graphics and texts in color. These monitors were very bulky and emitted a lot of heat. Even worse, the display was not very bright so it could not be used in daylight, for example.

This was followed by the discovery of LED-monitors in 1962, LCD-monitors in 1968 and OLED-monitors in 1987. And still, most people use monitors in their everyday lives.

Sources:

Public Telephone Booths:

1) https://www.five9.com/rise-and-fall-of-the-telephone-booth

Computer Monitors:

1) https://www.vssmonitoring.com/who-invented-the-first-computer-monitor/