Google Unveiled

Apparently I don't know as much about google as I thought I did. Yes, there is more to the google search engine than just typing in need-to-know information and pressing enter. First off google not only searches randomly for all the hits matching your typed words, but google can also define terms, search media, books, and also search through scholarly journals if you wish to limit the field of results. This search is called (not-surprisingly) Google Scholar and would have saved me a bunch of time if I had just known of it. Throughout high school the librarians repeated over and over that google was not a legitimate search engine for scholarly articles, but despite this mindless imprinting the students used google anyway (when the librarians weren't looking). If only I had known of this feature before coming to Trinity I could have shown those strict librarians that google is not the annoying search engine that it appears to be but a well thought out resource that could potentially save a lot of time. But I should not dwell on the past and I should use this Google Scholar resource with the best of my abilities from now on.

Copyright and Disney?...hmmm

I will confess to you I LOVE DISNEY!! Disney movies are my picker-upper when I'm down and make me joyous when I'm happy. But recently I have found out that the Disney characters are presently only Disney because they are protected under Copyright laws that may soon expire. The law protects works under copyright laws for the lifespan of the author plus 70 years and with the death of Walt Disney in 1966 this time period may be shortened if the present law is modified to 50 years. The old law gave only 50 years after the author's death but the Sonny Bono Act added 20 years to change the law to 70 years in order to protect the Disney characters from public domain in 2016. Once I discovered this threat, I could not believe that my precious Disney characters may soon be thrown to the jaws of society. Disney deserves better than this!

I understand the whole purpose of public domain and that it allows citizens to freely scope out work without the threat of breaking copyright laws. The world would be chaotic with infinite amounts of infringement happening all over the world! Every family would most likely have some sort of law suit occurring over historical familial works that hundreds of years later would have some case of infringement. Works need to be set free and public domain allows society to freely breathe without law suits haunting us every second of the day. But I still cannot get over the fact that Disney characters will eventually succumb to public reign maybe sooner rather than later.

For work, such as Disney, that is a marvel in society and in which truly places a historical mark on the world I believe some kind of exemption should exist. Some kind of hall of fame that no one can touch despite the copyright public domain. Maybe this is wishful thinking but I cannot seem to imagine that public domain can be such a good thing with masterpieces such as the Disney characters. I know I will see the day where the Disney characters will fall under free public reign and that day will be a tough one for me who feels Disney deserves better for providing happiness and laughs when gloom threatened.