When Napster first came out, millions of internet users worldwide were illegally downloading and distributing copyrighted music, videos, images, and software for free. After being vilified by the entertainment industry, which claims that Napster and any similar programs could make piracy of almost any digital work unstoppable, and many court battles, Napster was ordered by court to be shutdown in 2000. The technology has been praised as a revolutionary development for the Internet—unaware of the problems that would arise from such practices. However, the termination of Napster was not enough, months later, dozens of new, like programs were being developed and used. And since Napster, not much has been done to stop these latest downloading programs.
WHAT EFFECTS HAS THE INTERNET HAD ON DATA PROTECTION? With the Internet, there is no authoritarian figure for accepting the responsibility of protecting the privacy of the customers. The responsibility of data protection and privacy is therefore shared amongst millions of service providers. Users of the Internet are forced in placing their trus... ... middle of paper ... ...e users along with the new technological developments is only a stepping-stone in developing a 100% secure Internet environment. Attempting to build a full proof system is not possible due to the possibility that human error is always possible.
So, now with this new technology available to everyone over the internet, it creates problems for all of these businesses, so laws are added to downloading. But its not all downloading, it is certain files that are illegal to download and the way those files have been acquired. You can go to almost any sight created for supporting computer software and somewhere on this sight; there will be a link to take you to download. But there are legal downloads, they are the 30-day trial, or the ‘15 uses, then you must buy a password’ type of programs. They are set out from the company, to promote their product, in a legal way.
However, for the large record labels, this new technology could mean real trouble in the future. Right now, the loss are negligible. For example, Americans spent almost nothing on downloaded music in 1998, but they spent nearly $14 billion on music from stores (Mardesich 96). Nevertheless, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) said that MP3 piracy may have contributed to a
The emergence of the Internet and the World Wide Web brought upon a medium of communication with a range of opportunities to the world. However, this medium is, in due course, subject to the control of a few major companies. The enigma of expression and free speech on the internet is the central concern of the debated concept of network neutrality. Net neutrality is the idea of equal access to information for users and the concept pertaining ISP’s and their control over access to content (Weitzner 78). The packages provide a visualized concept of ISP content control in the debate of network neutrality.
The History and Future of the Internet Many believe the internet was an over night sensation, that one day, someone invented the internet and it spread in popularity faster than Tickle Me Elmo or the Macarena. Although the internet did have a surge of commercial popularity, with the invention of Mosaic and later with e-commerce, it was created many years ago with the development of military networking technologies. Also, the internet, unlike many pop culture fads of the nineties, will continue to see a growth in popularity and usefulness as a form of media throughout the information age. Sure, the internet became overambitious to the point where many internet start-up companies lost their businesses in the recession of the past few years. The quality of the internet, however, has increased as companies realize that there exists competition and smarter consumers that demand superiority.
Forms of piracy never thought of before are appearing every single day. With the Internet, it is now also easier to copy and share copyrighted materials. One of the inherent problems with attempting to regulate this piracy is the gap in laws between countries. How do you punish who pirates music in a country that does not recognize the copyright laws of the music piece’s origin. Also, what makes a certain piece of software legal in one country but illegal in another?
When all of this was happening, other applications were made available. Kazaa and Grokster are probably the two most used Peer to Peer, or P2P file sharing networks you can find, although there are many others. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) wants to let the public know that this file sharing that is going on is illegal. The only way to stop this is to start lawsuits. The RIAA has been making attempts for a couple years to inform the public that file sharing is illegal, but now that nothing has happened appropriate action needs to take place (RIAA 1).
The current process of translating IP addresses to readable domain names is performed by using the Domain Name Service (DNS). In the early days of the Internet, and prior to the inception of the DNS architecture, relatively few hosts existed on the Internet. The method at the time to locate host computers on the Internet was by use of a special file called hosts.txt. The master copy of the hosts.txt was centrally managed and hosted by the Stanford Research Institute – Networking Information Center (SRI-NIC). All computers residing on the Internet were required to download the hosts.txt file from the SRI-NIC to have an up-to-date copy of the mapping of all hosts on the Internet.
A legal strategy that focuses mostly on the US is unlikely to change the supply of music files. “Previous studies have relied on Surveys to assess the effect of the file sharing on the music sales. This is problematic because it is impossible to know if survey participants truthfully respond to questions about an illegal activity. This study is unique in that it uses data from file sharing servers, where the authors directly observed 1.75 million downloads during 17 weeks in the fall of 2002. Using statistical methods, they can then test if the sale of an album declines more strongly if that album is downloaded more often.” (CONCLUSION) So, even with the pros/cons, copyright laws, ethics, and facts; is file sharing an illegal crime, and one that deserves the heavy penalties as those serious crimes?