In the very near future, our congress is going to vote on a bill regarding internet privacy. You may ask yourself why this concerns you? well it may not. but for many users of the internet, getting free music/movies/whatever as a big deal. piracy on the internet is a pretty big phenomenon right now and it seems like it is only getting larger, however, the US government is making a stand to stop it. The bill is called ACTA or the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. Without going into too much detail and boring you all, i will simply say that gives the government the right to confer with your internet service provider and look at your personal online history and usage (right now they don't have that right without a proper warrant, etc). basically, if you pirate media enough that your IP address shows up consistently on government databases, you could be subject to search and seizure of pirated material and pay huge fines or go to jail :). if you are one of those people that pirates media, i urge you to read up about this bill and/or sign a petition to stop it. Here's some links if you're interested:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Counterfeiting_Trade_Agreement
http://www.anti-acta.com/
also in this thread: random pics for your entertainment (some edited..)
and if anyone cares, as i was finishing this post i was listening to Mint Royale - Wait For You
ps: as i try to move the content around, it seems i turned my entire post in a giant hyperlink and can't get rid of it. sorry for that, you'll have to copy/paste the website links
Thanks for notifying us about this bill, had no idea! Things like this always get me thinking...I just have some mixed feelings about this. First I will say that I am definitely a believer in reducing the extent to which the government is involved in our everyday lives. However, when it comes to illegal activities on the internet or illegal activities through any other medium, I find myself stepping back from my belief about "big governments." While I get that it may violate our civil rights to privacy, at the same time people need to think about it this way--if you're doing what you should be doing and you aren't breaking any laws, what do you have to worry about? This bill could enhance our ability to crackdown on pedophiles, people essentially stealing from artists, etc. There's definitely pros and cons to think about!
ReplyDeleteI hadn't heard about this bill either! I kind of wonder how far back they would be able to look at your history of internet use. Are people going to be punished for things that they may have done 5 years ago and no longer do? I personally did a lot of illegal downloading of music back when I was in high school and my first year of college. Would I be held accountable for my actions back then? Definitely time to do some research. Really interesting stuff.
ReplyDeleteThis is something I needed to hear.
ReplyDeleteI definitely don’t pay for music online... I may buy it. I also watch movies online for free, so this really affects me, so thanks for the help!
I’ve got to say this seems a bit much. I mean I feel like they’re still going to be a way to get the media for free, so I feel this is kind of a pointless tactic.
Honestly I don’t see the use in cracking down on it. I use the internet to get new music, because I don’t have time to really listen to the radio. And I get it offline, because if I only like the single, I don’t think I want to pay 14 dollars for a whole cd.
I could lay off the movies, but I just don’t really want too.
I do see the pros though. Like Rachel said, there are more serious offenses online that this bill could help. Like the online predators, scammers, it would be great to not receive emails from "Nigeria" trying to scam me out of 3,000. So I can understand that view point.
I think this is something that definitely needs to be examined. I can understand that there is a huge push to stop illegal downloading and scamming, but I feel that people will continue to invent new ways to get around this. I feel like this could really affect the younger population just starting to use the internet because just as we were saying with security issues, there is not really much awareness that is telling kids not to be doing things like downloading music, games, movies etc. There are various sites that offer downloads for free, but there is not really any clear set of standards that would urge individuals not to do this. I feel like before such strict violations are put into place there needs to be more awareness and attention brought to this issue. I guarantee over half of the people who have downloaded things in the past really had no clue that it could result in something like this, or else a lot of people would avoid doing it.
ReplyDeleteI used to hold such a skeptical attitude whenever someone would tell me to watch out because if I download too many songs off of Limewire I could get arrested. I kind of felt the effects of diffusion of responsibility; if everyone else does it, why should I think that the police are going to single me out, track me down, and fine and arrest me? I guess I saw it as an old wives' tale used to scare people away from illegal downloading.
ReplyDeleteNow that there is actual legislation in the works, I'm far less skeptical. Luckily, I haven't been using my Limewire much recently, so it won't be a big deal for me to stop using it altogether. I don't mind paying for music, but I agree with Brittany about not wanting to pay 10-15 bucks for an entire CD when all I really wanted was one or two tracks. Luckily, I-tunes is really good about allowing you to purchase almost any song by itself.