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The internet's impact on society
The internet's impact on society
Research papers on internet censorship
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Analysis of Internet Censorship In mid March of 1998, a scientific break through occurred for the engineers at NASA. The space probe that they sent to Mars came back and, for the first time, contained readable and usable photographs of the planet's landscape. Full of pride over their latest achievement, NASA posted the information on the Internet. This allowed astronomy enthusiasts, students, and other interested individuals to take a first hand look at the, never before seen, Martian Landscape. (NASA) One month later, two men in New Jersey were arrested for posting inappropriate information on the Internet. They had been caught displaying pornographic images of children as young as seven years old. These men were promptly prosecuted and sentenced to jail time and over $600,000 worth of fines. (Business Week) Most recently the Supreme Court had to decide whether it was fair or not for music fans to download their favorite songs free of any royalties to the artists. The program, design by two college students, is named Napster and its designed to allow the sharing of mp3 music files over the Internet. Currently, the program is still available and operating with much support from its users. Support is something the Internet is not lacking. The examples listed are a fragment of the cases brought before our judicial system concerning the content on the information super highway. Not only are these examples pulled out of a pool of many, but also it's also quite evident that the content is rather vast itself. Justice Stevens of the Supreme Court was quoted as saying "Internet content is as diverse as human thought." Herb Brody from Technology Review describes the Net as "the ultimate intellectual jumble…where brainy ... ... middle of paper ... ...on would turn the information super highway into a children's reading room" (Internet Society). A children's reading room is exactly where a child should be. If they are not and such controversial material is made available, then something besides the information is at blame. As Gary Bauer, president of the Family Research Council, stated so succinctly, "too man parents are looking to the so-called village to care for their children instead of meeting this precious responsibility themselves" (Diamond). This statement is a wake up call to those who are blaming media for humanity's discontent. It is blatantly obvious that we are responsible for our actions as individuals in the legal structure that surrounds our culture. It needs to become equally obvious that we are responsible as parents and as a community for the growth and development of the next generation.
COPA makes adult website operators liable for criminal sanctions -- up to $50,000 in fines and six months in jail -- if children are able to access material deemed "indecent," by "contemporary community standards," for those under 16. This raises the sticky issue of what "community" should set the standard for the global world of the Internet.
Santorum, Rick. " Bill to Protect Children from Pornography on the Internet Signed into Law Today Communities Will Have Flexibility to Develop Their Own Internet Use Policy." FDCH Press Release. 12 Dec. 2000. Academic Search Elite. EBSCOHost. 19 Feb. 2001.
On 16th of December 1949, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was signed. Although we want governments and regimes to abide with the articles not all do. Our government is formed to protect us and to provide every citizen, infrastructure in order to make the person able to live. However our governments also care for themselves as well. They want to stay in power thus they have to protect their reputation. This is where internet censorship steps in. Although censoring some sites is reasonable, some are not. If a site on the internet criticizes the government and if this happens in a country where the government is somewhat oppressive, the site is blocked to access. I believe the level of tolerance towards criticism of a government can be found by the internet censorship in that country. We can categorize these types of governments into five: No or few censorship, normal amounts of censorship, above normal, high amount of censorship and extreme amounts of censorship. I am going to focus about the last three levels. For these levels Republic of Turkey, People’s Republic of China and Democratic People’s Republic of Korea are examples I am going to talk about. These examples would be coinciding with the levels respectively.
The Internet, with its unlimited access to any kind of information, is today’s most commonly used tool used worldwide. This poses some complex questions that challenge liberal and conservative alike, the most recent defenders of the First Amendment, and the most passionate exponents of censorship. With the rush by our President to make the Internet accessible to every U.S. student, the problem extends far beyond libraries and into our schools. This censorship problem would seem to have no easy solution. First, let's assume pornography is a bad thing. It encourages poor behavior and disrespect toward women in general. Yes, any respectable human being would agree with that. But why does this have to be a problem in our schools? Isn't it the responsibility of the parents to guide their children? Isn’t it up to the parents to teach their kids stuff like that is morally wrong? Kids should already know behavior like that does not belong at school. Schools have a fear of this happening so they take action and put a block on all key words that are linked with pornography. Great, now how will students learn about subjects such as bre...
“If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.” - George Washington. Freedom of speech is one of the universal declarations of human right, created on the 10th of December 1948. It is the complete opposite of what censorship of the internet entails. “This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by a public authority and regardless of frontiers.” Censorship of the internet not only goes directly against this, but it prevents a free flow of information, our ability to communicate as a society and places governments in control of our rights of expression.
The Internet distributes more information than any other medium in the world. There are several problems that have emerged along with the Internet, “As soon as the public began to use the Internet, people began to express concern about its use” (Clark 1). Some groups feel that the World Wide Web is dangerous because of it’s open accessibility, whereas other groups see that the Internet is something that can be used to share knowledge globally. The Internet should not be censored because censorship would restrict Americans’ first amendment rights; regulations have been tried and have failed in the past, and there are better methods of education and protection than censorship.
The authors first reasoning to help support his claim was “Censorship can also protect us from the circulation of dangerous information.” Another reasoning the author had stated was “It is also wrong for information that is false or misleading to be easily available for anyone to find.” The author gives logical reasoning to support his claim, but does not give sufficient support. Not only does the author give insufficient support, but he also doesn’t organize the passage clearly, so that the reader can understand his reasoning clearly. If the readers were trying to detect the supporting evidence he used to back his claim up, they would take longer than they should. The author also uses exaggeration in his article. They say “Parents have no power at all over the entertainment.” This is exaggeration because they say “no power at all,” by saying this that means there is no possibility of any parent in the world having any control over entertainment. How about the people that work for entertainment industry? What if they are parents? Technology these days also allow parents to block
Before the 1990’s, if people want to listen to music, they just visit a music store and pick up a CD and then put it into a stereo equipment. However, the development of MP3 file format gradually changed the way people listen to music. This format lets everyone download music easily and it can be converted to CD as well. But, there is still a problem: searching MP3 files on the internet is maddening and people seldom can find the music they want. Therefore, the birth of Napster solved this problem, creating a virtual music community in which music fans could use the Web as a “swap meet” for music files. More importantly, Napster is easy to use and it’s free, which expands the range of audience in age. Bandwidth also contributed to Napster’s success. The greater the bandwidth, the faster the file can be transferred. So, Napster really changed the way people listen to music, discover music and interact with music.
that some of the material that is on the net needs to be filtered and regulated. The word censorship is defined as examining any material and prohibiting what is objectionable, according to Webster’s II dictionary. Censoring the internet is a violation of the first ammendment rights of every citizen in the United States. There are two general truths that some people feel are attitudes towards censoring the internet. The first is that very few people admit to favoring it. The second is that no matter who you are, in a matter of minutes spent surfing the net almost anyone can find something that they find to be offensive. In fact, some web surfers feel that the truly inappropriate things are inspired by one’s own religion. For example, the Nurenberg Files website showed pictures of mangled fetuses with the photograph, name, and address of some abortion clinic doctors.
One of the most interesting arguments that supported Napster, was that it actually helped many artist, for example the band Radiohead - who had never previously reached near the Top 20 in the US, released their album Kid A, which was available on Napster for 3 months prior to its actual release. When it was officially released, the album reached at the top of the Billboard Top 200, and greatly helped the band show their work off as a huge success. However, the industry realized the large threat that Napster was, well-known artists Metallica and Dr.Dre both filed lawsuits, and disclosed the usernames of thousands of users to federal courts (nerdist), however both lawsuits were eventually settled, but that did not mean that Napster would be left alone. In 2000, the Recording Industry Association of America also sued Napster under the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act for “contributory and vicarious copyright infringement”. Further, in 2001 the US Supreme Court ruled that free music downloading (from programs like Napster) was illegal and violated the musicians and labels
Along with the development of a file format (MP3) to store digital audio recordings, came one of the new millennium’s most continuous debates – peer-to-peer piracy – file sharing. Internet companies such as Napster and Grokster became involved in notable legal cases in regards to copyright laws in cyberspace. These two cases are similar in nature, yet decidedly different. In order to understand the differences and similarities, one should have an understanding of each case as well as the court’s ruling.
"Mahika Gupta Internet Censorship Internet Censorship is the suppression of ideas or information on the internet. This can be done through the alteration of IP addresses and sabotage the TCP. If someone alters the IPA to either block or change where the user is sent, it can take the user away from the website. If the TCP does not work properly then the information coming from sites will not be received by the user. The internet has become an important communicative tool, which brings significant convenience and efficiency for many people around the world.
Censorship of information has been an issue since a beginning of humanity. Information created cultures, ideals, and religions. There have been many arguments for and against censorship specifically on the internet which connects people on a global scale. Many factors come into play when it comes to the filtering of the internet. On a national scale it comes with the violation of rights, the first amendment is the freedom of speech and the sharing of ideas.
Raeburn, Paul. Mars: Uncovering the Secrets of the Red Planet. Washington, D.C: National Geographic Society, 1998. Print.
Censorship of the media for children is necessary, but should not be handled by government or other groups. Instead it should be directed and controlled by parents. Censorship for children is necessary because the average American view’s 100,000 acts of violence on TV before reaching t...