Critical Essay: Stage 3

Living in today’s world one has access to ample amounts of information collected from previous study, people today rely on this gathered research to develop their own views on topics. Legal views chastise and condemn people for using someone else’s work. From a legal standpoint, reusing anyone else’s work for any purpose is considered illegal. Even though this is considered illegal, in certain instances, modifying and adopting another’s work proves better than trying to work from scratch. Personal use and Profitable use demonstrate two different situations where remixing works of another person proves a better use of one’s creative energy.

Modifying a product for personal use represents the first situation where using another’s studies can aid a person in developing a foundation for a product. As viewed in the computer software field, many people use other people’s works as models for their own works. If people do not aim to market their product, then no harm will come from them using other people’s information as a basis for their own. Computer software modification in this situation would not hurt the sales of the product and instead help sales by satisfying the customer. For this reason, copyright laws should not apply when the person remixing does not plan on marketing this remade work. Ideas stem mainly from past research only a minute number of ideas spring from raw thought. Hindering these ideas with pointless copyright laws that have no effect on the sales of the original product are pointless and hurt society as a whole.

Industrially the world relies on modification of products for profit. Changing a product from an original proves a tricky business; the product must transform completely. When altering a product one has to remember to change the appearance, yet maintaining a similar yet different function from the original work. Competition within the industrial world leads to the creation of high end, efficient products. Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales provides an example of this modification, giving insight into how to alter a product. Seeing a venue for improvement Chaucer revisited the original work, The Decameron, and revised it. Freedoms to manipulate alter and hone allowed Chaucer to generate a well respected piece of history.

Many people argue that allowing people to alter another person’s work has also caused more people to plagiarize. Concern that someone will only slightly alter an original work drives people to not appreciate what using other peoples work has allowed our world to accomplish. Chaucer’s remaking of The Decameron contained many similarities to the original, yet despite the similarities Chaucer conveyed a deeper meaning. Through the reconstruction of the Decameron, Chaucer unveiled how revisiting a work can lead to the unmasking of something superior to previous products. Despite the abuse of freedom to recreate many improvements to the world have developed leading to the conclusion that the enhancements outweigh the mistreatment.

So is there a time when remixing someone else’s works proves to be a better use of one’s creative energy? When one is remixing someone else’s work and only plans for its purpose to be personal use, the law should not hinder these people from modifying the original work to fit the needs of the modifier. When one is remixing someone else’s work for profitable use, though, there is only a fine line between whether the remade work can be considered plagiarism or can be considered one’s own work. To make this new work contains no similar features as the original work and make sure the new work not be considered plagiarism, the author must show a level of ingenuity and creativity that will improve society as a whole. For these reasons, there are situations where reusing or remixing someone else’s work is a better use of creative energy than starting from scratch.

Works Cited

Boccaccio, Giovanni. The Decameron. 14^th Century. Decameron Web. 30 Jan 2010.http://www.stg.brown.edu/projects/decameronNew/DecShowText.php?myID=d01intro&expand=day01&lang=eng.

Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales. New York: Barnes & Noble Classics, 2007

Critical Essay: Stage 2

Very Rough Draft (Still needs conclusion)

Generally, using someone else’s work is considered to be stealing, but, is there a time when reusing someone else’s work is actually better than making your own work? From a legal standpoint, reusing anyone else’s work for any purpose is considered illegal. Still, there are times when taking someone else’s work and modifying it is better than trying to make your own work from scratch. There are two different situations where remixing someone else’s work is a better use of creative energy rather than starting over from scratch and one where remixing someone else’s work would be bad. The situations where remixing someone else’s work is better are when you plan to remake the product just for your own personal use and when you plan to make enough changes to the product so that it does not resemble the old product, and the situation where remixing is bad is when you change the product only a little and then you market the product as your own.

The first situation where using someone else’s work as a starting point is better is when you plan on modifying the product for your own use and no one else’s. This is especially prevalent in the field of computer software. If you don’t plan on marketing the product, why should you be forbidden from modifying the product you bought to fit your own needs? Modifying computer software in this situation would not hurt the sales of the product and it would make the customer that bought it much happier.

The second situation is when you plan on changing the product so much that it doesn’t resemble the original product at all. This situation is more questionable than the first situation. There is only a thin line separating this situation from the third situation. For this second situation to be alright, the product needs to be changed enough that there is no resemblance to the original product. This should be allowed because if you know that someone can make your product better and market it, you will be more inclined to make the best product that you possibly can. The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer is an example of this modifying a work and claiming it is your own. Chaucer saw how he could improve The Decameron and so he took this original work and made it better while changing it enough that it was his own work and marketed it as his work. This work was so much better that we still study it today. If there had been rules against this, we would not have this great work to study.

The third situation is the one reason why being able to change someone else’s work and calling it your own is bad. There will be some instances where someone will only change the original work a small amount and try to market it as their own work. This would mean that people could make money off of other peoples workTo make improving someone else’s work legal, there would have to be rules on what would be considered enough improvement to make someone else’s work be considered yours. Chaucer’s remaking of The Decameron could be debated to be in this situation. Even though Chaucer’s story has its differences from the original work, the two stories are still very similar.

Insert Conclusion Here

Critical Essay: Stage 1

Thesis:

There are two different situations where remixing someone else’s work is a better use of creative energy rather than starting over from scratch. These situations are when you plan to just use the remade product just for yourself and when you are going to make enough changes to the product that it does not resemble the old product. The only situation where remixing a product is bad is when you only change the product a little and then you try to market the new product as your own work.

Main Points:

Using a remade work for just yourself does not hurt the sales of the product.

If you change the work enough that it doesn’t resemble the original work, you should be allowed to market it.

When you only change the product a small amount and try to remarket it, you would be infringing on the original owners profits and that should be illegal.

Multimodal Donne Annotation: Stage 4

Multimodal Donne Annotation: Stage 3

This rough draft doesn't have any of the pictures in it that I plan to have in the final draft. I am also thinking about putting music to it also.

Multimodal Donne Annotation: Stage 2

IV.

O, my black soul, now thou art summoned
By sickness, Death's herald and champion ;
Thou'rt like a pilgrim, which abroad hath done
Treason, and durst not turn to whence he's fled ;
Or like a thief, which till death's doom be read,
Wisheth himself deliver'd from prison,
But damn'd and haled to execution,
Wisheth that still he might be imprisoned.
Yet grace, if thou repent, thou canst not lack ;
But who shall give thee that grace to begin ?
O, make thyself with holy mourning black,
And red with blushing, as thou art with sin ;
Or wash thee in Christ's blood, which hath this might,
That being red, it dyes red souls to white.

Source:
Donne, John. Poems of John Donne. vol I.
E. K. Chambers, ed.
London: Lawrence & Bullen, 1896. 158-159.

Presentation:

For my presentation, I would like to make a slide show with slides about the annotations. I might also put some audio in the slide show that goes along with the meter if I can find any. I will put some pictures of Donne and some pictures that relate to the Sonnet. The pictures would help enhance the images in the Sonnet.

Outside Sources:

Kuchar, Gary. "Petrarchism and Repentance in John Donne's Holy Sonnets." Modern Philology: Critical and Historical Studies in Literature, Medieval Through Contemporary 105.3 (2008): 535-569. MLA International Bibliography. EBSCO. Web. 5 Mar. 2010.

This source is useful because it talks about Donne's views on redemption. It talks about how Donne's views are darker and more traumatic when it comes to redemption which relates to the darkness of this Sonnet. This is by a reputable author from the University of Victoria.

Hester, M. Thomas. "'Let Them Sleepe': Donne's Personal Allusion in Holy Sonnet IV." Papers on Language and Literature: A Journal for Scholars and Critics of Language and Literature29.3 (1993): 346-350. MLA International Bibliography. EBSCO. Web. 1 Mar. 2010.

This source is useful because it is focused on the 4th Sonnet alone. It analyzes each line of the poem and also talks about how the poem relates to Donne's past experiences. I will use this to help me analyze each line of the poem. This article is by Thomas Hester and it was published in Papers on Language and Literature so it is a reputable source.

Cefalu, Paul. "Godly Fear, Sanctification, and Calvinist Theology in the Sermons and 'Holy Sonnets' of John Donne." Studies in Philology 100.1 (2003): 71-86. MLA International Bibliography. EBSCO. Web. 5 Mar. 2010.

This source talks about how the darkness, fear, and doubt in the Holy Sonnets could potentially stem from his doubts about his salvation. This article talks about how Donne is having doubts about his ability to maintain a holy lifestyle, and this leads to the darkness in the Sonnets. This article is published by the University of North Carolina Press which is a reputable source.

Beaston, Lawrence. "Talking to a Silent God: Donne's Holy Sonnets and the Via Negativa." Renascence: Essays on Values in Literature 51.2 (1999): 95-109. MLA International Bibliography. EBSCO. Web. 5 Mar. 2010.

This source talks about how each Sonnet is not a complete spiritual journey by itself but when all of the Sonnets are put together, they make a complete spiritual journey of the speaker. It talks about how each sonnet doesn't come to a definite resolution. This indefinite resolution is representative of God not answering the speaker and yet the speaker still goes back. I plan to relate this to the overall theme of the Sonnet. This article was published in a journal which makes it a reputable source.

Multimodal Donne Annotation: Stage 1

IV.

O, my black soul, now thou art summoned
By sickness, Death's herald and champion ;
Thou'rt like a pilgrim, which abroad hath done
Treason, and durst not turn to whence he's fled ;
Or like a thief, which till death's doom be read,
Wisheth himself deliver'd from prison,
But damn'd and haled to execution,
Wisheth that still he might be imprisoned.
Yet grace, if thou repent, thou canst not lack ;
But who shall give thee that grace to begin ?
O, make thyself with holy mourning black,
And red with blushing, as thou art with sin ;
Or wash thee in Christ's blood, which hath this might,
That being red, it dyes red souls to white.

Source:

Donne, John. Poems of John Donne. vol I.
E. K. Chambers, ed.
London: Lawrence & Bullen, 1896. 158-159.

Outside Sources:

Hester, M. Thomas. "'Let Them Sleepe': Donne's Personal Allusion in Holy Sonnet IV." Papers on Language and Literature: A Journal for Scholars and Critics of Language and Literature 29.3 (1993): 346-350. MLA International Bibliography. EBSCO. Web. 1 Mar. 2010.