Wikipedia defines Privacy as the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves and thereby reveal themselves selectively. In essence privacy is just the ability to hide information that you don't want to share. Privacy is an extremely important aspect of our society. Without our personal privacy we have no ability to hide anything, no matter how embarrassing or personal it might be. Most pyschologists agree that keeping a set of boundaries is crucial to our mental health, and if we disclose everything we are liable to having certain psychological problems. Privacy on the internet is an extremely important aspect of today's society, and an aspect of society that has had an influence on me personally. I learned the hard way about the importance of internet safety. Last year I was in the library on UB learns sorting through my classes and checking my schedule. After about 20 minutes I got up and went to the bathroom without logging out of my UBlearns. When I got back from the bathroom I started checking my classes again but I noticed that something was different. Someone had dropped one of my classes. At first I couldn't believe that someone would do something like that. But after I thought about it I realized that the fact of the matter is that we live in a world where anything is possible. Even though I was only away from the computer for a few minutes I left myself vulnerable to an internet predator. It's scary to think about all the ways that predators can use the internet to take advantage of innocent people. This experience taught me how important it is to practice safe internet use. Never again will I leave a computer unintended while I'm logged in. Unfortunately there are so many aspects to the internet that it is difficult to fully protect ourselves on all possible fronts. Even if people take every neccessary precaution there are still predators that are able to hack into innocent people's accounts. These days people use the internet for everything. People shop on the internet, do their banking on the internet, and divulge all types of other information on the internet. Although the internet provides us with a very convenient medium for all these things, it also can be dangerous. Internet privacy is extremely important. If hackers can gain access to someones personal accounts numbers over the internet they will immediately hold in their hands the ability to ruin that person's life. It is extremely important that the US government imposes strict penalties for internet predators. If predators find out that they can committ these acts and only face minimal penalties then we will continue to live in a world where internet and identify theft is very prevalent.
Internet Privacy, Wikipedia.com, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interniet_privacy
Cyberbullying, UrbanDictionary.com, http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=cyberbullying
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Friday, September 12, 2008
Com125 Copyright Infringement
Copyright Infringement is a serious issue that affects a wide range of people. Two of the biggest problems include downloading music and movies illegally. The internet has made this problem worse over the years and it has become very hard to control. Programs such as limewire and kazza allow people to download music for free and burn it to CDs. Music downloading is an especially big problem on college campuses across the country. In 2006 U.S. college students downloaded 1.3 billion tracks illegally and only 500 million legally. Numbers like these are very troubling to the music industry, who are losing billions of dollars every year due to the massive amount of illegal downloading and file sharing. The Film industry has also suffered serious financial ramifications as a result of unauthorized copying of films. In 2005 the Motion Picture Association of America estimated that Copyright infringement had cost the film industry 18 billion dollars worldwide. With global costs of copyright infringement skyrocketing, it has become imperative that the US government find a solution to this increasingly large problem.
There are several technical and social structures that could be put into place to stop this problem. The most important thing we can do to ensure that this problem doesn't persist is to educate the infringers. Many people are unaware that sharing files of copyrighted work is illegal. The recording industry recently decided to increase its public awareness program and found that there is an increase in the amount of people who didn't know that it was illegal to share their music files with other users. When some people know that an activity is illegal, they are less likely to do it. Speakers should go into high schools and colleges to discuss copyright infringement. The key to putting an end to piracy is making sure the younger generation knows that it is illegal and will not be tolerated by society.
Another way we can prevent copyright infringement is by developing a technology system that includes features that make it difficult for people to steal and share files. This will make it harder and require more effort, which will lead to a decrease in piracy. One idea is to develop a website where users can anonymously report copyright infringement to the authorities. This will allow people to actively participate in the process of ending copyright infringement. For example if a user sees someone selling illegal DVDs, they can go to the site and type in the location of the crime. This will help the authorities get to heart of the problem and stop it before it continues further. People will feel comfortable going to the site because it will be easy to use and will be one hundred percent anonymous.
The final thing that can be done to help prevent the illegal theft and sharing of files is by establishing harsher, and more meaningful punishments. When someone is caught sharing files they need to be made an example of. There have already been several reported cases of users of online music sharing websites being sued by record labels for illegal theft of their product. The key to ending mainstream file sharing is letting the public know that if they choose to break the law it could end up costing them much more than it is worth. People will be more likely to purchase their music if they know that obtaining it illegally can and will cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The issue of copyright infringement is something that should not be taken lightly. In this current period of economic downturn it is critical that big businsses are not jeopardized by petty crime. Through education awareness, technology, and harsher punishments we can set in place, a system where copyright infringement goes from a multi billion dollar industry to nothing more than another minor problem in our society.
K.C. Jones InformationWeek June 7, 2007 http://www.informationweek.com/news/internet/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=199902097
Nathan Davis. Thanks for letting us pirate. 5 February 2007.
There are several technical and social structures that could be put into place to stop this problem. The most important thing we can do to ensure that this problem doesn't persist is to educate the infringers. Many people are unaware that sharing files of copyrighted work is illegal. The recording industry recently decided to increase its public awareness program and found that there is an increase in the amount of people who didn't know that it was illegal to share their music files with other users. When some people know that an activity is illegal, they are less likely to do it. Speakers should go into high schools and colleges to discuss copyright infringement. The key to putting an end to piracy is making sure the younger generation knows that it is illegal and will not be tolerated by society.
Another way we can prevent copyright infringement is by developing a technology system that includes features that make it difficult for people to steal and share files. This will make it harder and require more effort, which will lead to a decrease in piracy. One idea is to develop a website where users can anonymously report copyright infringement to the authorities. This will allow people to actively participate in the process of ending copyright infringement. For example if a user sees someone selling illegal DVDs, they can go to the site and type in the location of the crime. This will help the authorities get to heart of the problem and stop it before it continues further. People will feel comfortable going to the site because it will be easy to use and will be one hundred percent anonymous.
The final thing that can be done to help prevent the illegal theft and sharing of files is by establishing harsher, and more meaningful punishments. When someone is caught sharing files they need to be made an example of. There have already been several reported cases of users of online music sharing websites being sued by record labels for illegal theft of their product. The key to ending mainstream file sharing is letting the public know that if they choose to break the law it could end up costing them much more than it is worth. People will be more likely to purchase their music if they know that obtaining it illegally can and will cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The issue of copyright infringement is something that should not be taken lightly. In this current period of economic downturn it is critical that big businsses are not jeopardized by petty crime. Through education awareness, technology, and harsher punishments we can set in place, a system where copyright infringement goes from a multi billion dollar industry to nothing more than another minor problem in our society.
K.C. Jones InformationWeek June 7, 2007 http://www.informationweek.com/news/internet/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=199902097
Nathan Davis. Thanks for letting us pirate. 5 February 2007.
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