Rob Reid's TED Talk

I saw the title of comic author Rob Reid's TED Talk, "The $8 Billion iPod" and was instantly drawn to it. With a title like that, how could you not be? When he started off his talk by mention SOPA and ACTA, I was even more thrilled. He goes on to talk about how the MPAA estimates that the American economy lost $58 billion in the bast year due to content theft. He lays out how, despite the fact that music industry revenue was down about $8 billion in 10 years, the TV, movie, book and radio revenues are way up. It's not possible to be down $58 billion. Which poses the question, is the MPAA lying to us? He decides that, under the practice of "Copyright Math", the missing $50 billion in revenue must be made up by something that hadn't existed before the first survey was taken.... Illegally downloaded ringtones. (cue an uproar of laughter). He touches on the topic of job loss due to piracy and average revenue loss for every copyrighted movie that is downloaded. Using the power of humor, he pretty much annihilates the MPAA's entire argument in under 6 minutes.

The best part in the whole speech was when Reid said that the MPAA stated that for each movie/song that is illegally downloaded, $150,000 is lost. He then proceeded to talk about the MP3 player. He said "[The first MP3 player] was a big Christmas hit, because what little hoodlum wouldn't want a million and a half bucks-worth of stolen goods in his pocket?” along with this equation: "10 songs x $150k = $1.5 million". I was laughing so hard that my mom came into my room to check on me. I loved it when he said, "Today's iPod classic can hold about 40,000 songs... Or $8 billion dollars in stolen media... Or about 75,000 jobs."

Reid uses humor to his advantage so well. He completely gets his point across, (that the MPAA's official statement is total you-know-what), but he does it so hilariously that I feel the need to re-watch it over and over again. I'm not saying that pirating music/movies/TV shows is okay, but I also don't think it's as massive of a deal as the MPAA and American government are making it out to be. Bravo, Mr. Reid. Bravo.

http://www.ted.com/talks/rob_reid_the_8_billion_ipod.html

David Eggar's TED Talk

It is 8:48 in the morning and I have no idea what David Eggar is talking about. It's not his fault. It's totally mine. It's my punishment for going to bed at 12:30 last night. I just need to zone in and get this done. He is telling a very interesting story about how he opened a pirate store. I think I missed something, though, because he is relating his pirate store to education. I think he opened a tutoring center in his pirate school. There it is. That's super cool that he did that. I would LOVE to have a tutor if it was in a pirate store! That's such a fantastic way to get children interested in learning. When he started talking about how the children were inspired by the prospect of an outside audience, I really connected with that. I love being able to share something I love with the world.

I'm sure that Eggar's TED Talk is really interesting and well put-together. However, because I was pulled out for my little conference with Mrs. Moritz, I think I missed some vital information that ties all of his ideas together, and I had a hard time focusing in on his topic. What I did figure out, though, I loved. Eggar was so natural and confident, and definitely well-practiced.When he started talking about the superhero store, (especially the "capery"), my entire class erupted in a chorus of "Woah!"s and "That's so AWESOME!"s. His call to action was simple enough to complete, yet it could really make a difference. I think it would be brilliant if more people in the community got involved with the public school systems.