COLUMN

Does it pay to be a pirate?

The topic of media piracy isone of hot debate world-

wide. The technological age we live

in makes transferring informa-tion from person to person easierthan ever. Through outlets suchas the Internet, people can sharephotographs, videos, messagesand of course, music.

The problem that arises fromthese transfers comes in the formof copyright and royalty laws. Acopyright provides exclusiverights and recognition to anauthor of an original work andallows them the freedom to pro-mote, sell and distribute thatwork however they see fit.

Under copyright laws, manymedia transfers that occurbetween people can be consid-ered illegal. For example, copy-ing a film or downloading analbum from the Internet withoutpaying the ample fees or royal-ties to the author violates theselaws, since the action impermis-sibly revokes the author’s exclu-sive right to the property. In theeyes of the filmmaker or artist,their work has been “stolen.”

According to the InternationalFederation of the PhonographicIndustry, of all music obtainedthrough digital means, only fiveper cent is acquired throughlegal methods such as the iTunesstore. This means 95 per cent ofdownloaded music is done sofreely – and illegally. These sta-tistics establish music as themost pirated form of media inthe world.

In Canada, music piracy is ille-gal, as it is in many other placesin the world. However, the “shar-ing” of music over the Web

through “Peer 2 Peer” programssuch as Limewire is completelylegal. This loophole makes thespread of pirated musicextremely hard to track.

Hey, but according to kinder-garten educators abroad, isn’tsharing a good thing?

On the flipside of the topic,many people – musiciansincluded – view media sharingas an outlet for aspiringartists to be recognized.Instead of having to pay forexpensive marketingcampaigns, musicianscan release their workthrough the Internetfor the world to listento and provide feed-back on.

In this context,music sharing can beseen less as piracy,but more as a way ofspreading art abroadand helping musi-cians find their “bigbreak.”

What it really comesdown to is a questionbetween whether mediasharing is truly “piracy”and a crime that deservesthe same punishment astheft, or an outlet for artists tospread their work around theglobe and acquire more recogni-tion.

Steven Filer, a student at SaintMichael Catholic High Schoolbelieves that music sharing is“another form of theft thatshould be punished.” On theother hand, Maria Artiga, aGrade 10 student from RidleyCollege says downloading musicis not a crime but “is a good wayto help new musicians get on themarket and get known bypeople.”

In my opinion, media sharing,or piracy, has it advantages anddisadvantages. On the positiveside, artists do receive recogni-tion for the music that is shared,which can lead to a larger fan

base. This fan base eventualbecomes the population ofpeople who attend concerts andpurchase merchandise in sup-port of a band.

However, on the flipside, I feeldownloading music free-of-charge does not give full credit tothe artist who worked hard onthat particular piece of art.

My conclusion? I think musicsharing should be used as a wayto preview media before pur-chasing it.

I believe if you truly enjoy theartist after listening to theirmusic, you should support themby purchasing their album orseeing them in concert.

Feel free to join the UPLOAD

facebook group athttp://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=32787704639 and dis-cuss music piracy on the discus-sion board!

Aaron Bailey is a student writerfor Upload. He attends SaintMichael Catholic SecondarySchool.

FRIDAY, JULY 10, 2009 ■ THE REVIEW PAGE C1

lifeCity Editor JOE WALLACE jwallace@nfreview.com 905-358-5711 ext. 1137

www.niagarafallsreview.ca

Amanda Spear

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I’M JUST SAYIN’

This is one war most peopledon’t think they will ever

hear about again in their lives.Most people don’t even know

this war actually existed; andthat’s why, when my friendbrought up the irony of over-priced chocolate, I thought Iwould look it up.

Our conversation started whenhe brought up the fact his orangeReese’s chocolate T-shirt com-pletely clashed with his purpleshorts. (The shorts are not thepoint, but they really, really, didclash.) Anyway, we got into thisconversation about how choco-late used to only cost five cents,and how now we have to paymore than a dollar for the samething. We got further into theconversation and noticed themost ironic thing I have thoughtabout in a while. It’s the realiza-tion that as production prices forchocolate have obviouslydecreased (chocolate is cheapand easy to make, especially inlarge quantities), it continues tobe overcharged, similar to theway the gas companies over-charge for a litre of the gold stuff.

Are the confectionary compa-nies crazy? About 40 years ago, agood chocolate bar only cost fivecents – and that was if youbought that size. It could be ascheap as even two cents.

When the price rose, even alittle, imagine the noise kids –and parents! – made over thechange of their beloved five-centcandy bars. Teens across Canadaall got together to stop the mad-ness of the eight-cent chocolatebar. Eight cents. Nowhere closeto a dollar. We have watched theprice increase today, and no oneseems to notice it creeping up.

To put things back into per-spective for everyone, gas priceshave actually lowered at themoment, per litre, to less thenwhat a good chocolate bar costs.

Now, I understand the term“highway robbery.” Confec-tionary companies continue toraid our pockets.

Maybe I got too worked upover this issue, but I have myfriend to thank and so do you.

If it wasn’t for strange purpleand orange clothes clashing allover the place, you may havenever even known the chocolatecompanies are not on our side.

I’m just saying’ …

Amanda Spear is a co-op studentfrom Westlane Secondary School.

The

war

➤➤ CONTACT US■ Email us: upload@nfreview.com■ www.niagarafallsreview.ca■ Facebook: Visit thegroup Upload: Theyouth page of theNiagara Falls Review.■ Call managing editor PeterConradi at 905-358-5711, ext. 1129

REVIEWS: Take a step back into the 1930s

Public Enemies full of bad-guy thriller actionFour-and-a-half winks(out of five)

Like Beethoven’s 5th Sym-phony, comes a film so pow-

erful and perfectly orchestrated,that it not only leaves you with afeeling of captivation and awe,but has you standing up, yearn-ing for an encore.

Public Enemies, a dramaticthriller, is the true story about aman under the belief he wasinvincible, unstoppable, and thebest of the best. At times he evenhas the audience fooled intoagreement.

Taking a step back to the1930’s, we get to take a glance at aDepression-stricken America,where crime has taken over thestreets. After a quick escape fromprison, the infamous JohnDillinger (Johnny Depp) and hiscrew head to Chicago, where themob offers him sanctuary.

Almost immediately, Dillingerand his team plan and executetheir next bank heist. On theirway out of the bank, a man offershim money out of his ownpocket, but Dillinger, in analmost Robin Hood fashion, tellshim, “No, we’re here for thebank’s money, not yours.”

While all of this is going on,FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover (Billy

Crudup) is on the rampage,declaring a war on crime,labelling Dillinger as PublicEnemy No. 1, and promotingagent Melvin Purvis (ChristianBale) as head of the Bureau inChicago. Purvis’ main objective:tracking down and bringing tojustice Dillinger. Once Purvis’ ini-tial efforts end in bloody results,he brings in some Texas rangersto change the odds.

Later on, Dillinger and histeam are out dining, drinking anddancing, and he happens to seewhat he views as the love of hislife, Billie Frechette (MarionCotillard), a coat check girl. Heimmediately wants her to be hisgirl, telling her he will “neverleave her”, and when she tells himshe knows nothing about him, hegives her a 10 second lesson,including him saying “I robbanks.” Needless to say, a rela-tionship is born.

No sooner does all of thishappen, when Dillinger getscaught once again, and thrownback into a tight security prisonback in Indiana. Dillinger man-ages to escape using only a pieceof soap, only to go back toChicago to find out the mob hasturned their back on him. This isjust the first thread that begins tounravel in Dillinger’s life, eventu-ally leading all the way up to hisinevitable demise.

Public Enemies, directed by

Michael Mann (Heat, Collateral)is a beautiful film. Mann recre-ates a Chicago of dark propor-tions, where crime reignedsupreme, and one man tried tostand above them all. His recre-ations of actual newscasts andgunfights are exceptional, onesuch scene at a lodge in Wiscon-sin being a standout. ThinkFourth of July fireworks. Puremagic.

The only drawback, what somemay call his flaw, is his use of thehandheld camera for certainscenes. Most of the time they givethe film a raw, edgy look, but inother instances, we just get sea-sick..

Depp (Finding Neverland,Sweeney Todd), as Dillinger, isbrilliant. Depp is one of the mostversatile actors out there, andhere he succeeds in every form.He shows us a criminal that soci-ety knew was not a good man,and yet Depp makes him some-one we want to cheer for. Hecracks jokes, and brims with aconfidence that can not beshaken or undone. There is abreathtaking scene whereDillinger walks into the ChicagoBureau: Dillinger Squad’s office,and calmly and confidently walksaround, looking at pictures ofhimself, even asking officers forthe score of a baseball game.Depp plays Dillinger as a manwho actually believes he can notbe touched.

Bale (Terminator: Salvation,The Dark Knight), as Purvis, isexceptional, and he hardly needsto do anything to reach thatstatus. He shows us a man whopurely loves to catch bad guys,and uses his soft tone and facialexpressions to get the job done.Crudup Watchmen, Big Fish), asHoover, is also excellent, as aman more worried about an offi-cer’s fashion than actually catch-ing the criminals. One otherstandout worth mentioning isthat of Stephen Graham (Snatch,Gangs of New York), as the hot-tempered, Tommy gun wieldingBaby Face Nelson.

Public Enemies, althoughbeing a fantastic film, is not amasterpiece. But once it hits thesenses, it’s a feast for the eyes,and music to the ears.

ThomasRotella

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Five winks (out of five)

Everybody loves to cheer for thebad guy.

Michael Mann doesn’t bother withthe classic debate between natureand nurture when he retells the storyof legendary American bank robber,John Dillinger. Mann doesn’t carewhat his childhood was like, or whattoll the Depression took on Dillinger.He only cares that the man was abank robber, a murderer, a wantedman and a Robin Hood of sorts to ageneration of disenfranchised Amer-icans.

The film starts out fast (though it’shard to notice at first because of theslow pace,) with Dillinger (JohnnyDepp) being taken to prison andbreaking out of prison, with a fewmembers of his gang, that same day.How he does this is just the tip of theiceberg when it comes to Dillinger’sscheming, as he escapes from prisononce more and dodges the law manytimes throughout the film.

When Dillinger returns to Chicago,a hot spot of Depression era crime,he meets Billie Frechette (MarionCotillard) and seemingly instantlyfalls in love with her. After confessingeverything about himself – he robsbanks, enjoys baseball, whiskey andher – he promises her a life of adven-ture; exactly what she has been look-ing for. While Dillinger balances hisrelationship with Frechette withmaking money the only way heknows how, J. Edgar Hoover (BillyCrudup) and newly appointed G-man, Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale),plot his downfall by declaring Amer-ica’s first war on crime and namingDillinger public enemy No. 1.

This film is beautifully con-structed. In classic Mann fashion,Public Enemies flows from being infocus to out of focus, as the camerashifts from mounted to hand held.Though some align out of focus withbeing bad, it works with the rawemotion this movie portrays. Theaction is fast, but like life, the movietakes its time getting there. The twoleads only meet face-to-face a fewtimes and when they do, their inter-actions are short and sweet. Deppcarries the movie, interchangingpure intensity with the wit andcharm audiences come to expectfrom him. Mann’s portrait of

Dillinger is almost Shakespearian.We want to cheer for Depp’s charac-ter despite knowing he is bad andone of the reasons we like him isbecause of his characteristics, eventhough it is clear his pride will be theend of him. It seems at times he isgoing to win, but we know he can’t.Depp has us hoping against hope forthe bad guy.

With all the emotion and intensityin Public Enemies I feared Balewould try to do too much and endup delivering another performancelike he did earlier in the summerwith Terminator: Salvation, that is tosay, not a very good one. However;Bale let his facial expressions andbody language do most of the talk-ing, as he portrayed Purvis as a con-served, emotional man who is out tomake the world a better place.Crudup was good as Hoover, por-traying him as a man who not onlywanted Dillinger brought down, butwanted his FBI to look good whiledoing it. One of the more intensescenes is a phone conversationbetween Bale and Crudup whereBale asks to bring a few men fromTexas to help, because Hoover’s stylewill only lead in deadFBI agents.

One down side is thatPublic Enemies runs justunder two and a halfhours and at times feelslike it, but it isn’t hard tobe absorbed right backinto the story. Also,Mann could be foundguilty of glorifying vio-lence and crime hadDillinger not alreadybeen an Americanlegend. This isn’t theclassic summer movie,as it has no pulse pound-ing explosions and callsfor the audience to waitfor plot to develop. Butaudiences have alwayscheered for the bad guyand Mann delivers theperfect bad guy to cheerfor.

AaronJankowski

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PUBLIC ENEMIESDirector: Michael Mann

Stars: Johnny Depp, Chris-tian Bale, Marion Cotillard

Time: Two hours,20 minutes

Sun Media

Johnny Depp plays JohnDillinger, public enemy No. 1,in Public Enemies, in the-atres now.

Aaron Bailey

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