The Next New

A new type of media that doesn't currently exist is one that I tried to create and promote myself 2 years ago at a New York Comic book convention: Comic Book Collaboration. You see, comic books seem to target a niche market nowadays, and its golden age has slipped into the past. Sure, comic book movies continue to be box office juggernauts ( no pun intended), but the actual comic is hardly mainstream anymore. A common excuse for this is that kids and young adults are highly involved in digital media, and comic book companies have tried, with moderate success, to transition into this form with digital comic books.
My idea is to have a website where a customer can sign up and give their idea for a story. Then, a team of artists bring the story to life in both paper form and digital form, the difference being the digital form would be a motion comic books, where the panels from the pages come to life.
I strongly believe this is a new media that will someday, probably through a company like Disney, will flourish.

P2P File Sharing

The idea of file sharing in this modern digital era means the passing on of digital samples of script,music,still picture, or video from one party to another. It is in my belief that the internet is a privilege, and not a right, and file sharing, so long as it is with purchased material, is fine and often times a necessity in communication in this modern digital world. I feel strongly that if a company markets a product as a digital piece of merchandise, if they cannot put restrictions on that product (such as Apple's Final Cut Pro software can only be shared on a maximum of 3 computers) then that product is fair game for the public to share, so long as it was originally purchased ethically and traditionally. File sharing seems to fall into the category, for the most part, of fair internet practice as it entails using the internet for its intended purposes.
P2P file sharing, on the other hand, draws a thin line in the sand, then more often than not crosses over it. It entails internet clients using third party software, enabling the illegal download of goods and services. A lot of work goes into making the source material. When internet users to not traditionally purchase or share these products it becomes a crime that, according to Eric Pfanner of the New York Times in his article, Should Online Scofflaws Be Denied Web Access, "...accounts for $20 billion a year in sales."
Using file sharing for a means of sharing information is an intended practice of the internet. Pirate sights and software like Limewire are using P2P file sharing in a less than ethical way and strict penalties should be enforced.