Introduction It is an unfortunate reality that in this age of technology cybercrime has been on the rise. This fact has instilled fear into many individuals and companies have lobbied the government to put a policy in place that can help stunt the growth of cybercrime. Unfortunately websites such as "Isohunt" have been developed that allows for the sharing of software, from one individual who buys the product to potentially millions of others for free. This is justifiably seen as thievery by many software companies. The United States government attempted to help combat these issues with a bill known by the public as SOPA. This paper will examine the policy behind the bill, the supporters and those against the bill, and finally ways to improve on the legislation.
Background
The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) was a United States bill introduced by U.S. Representative Lamar S. Smith (R-TX) to help expand U.S. law enforcement's jurisdiction to combat online copyright infringement, as well as, online trafficking in counterfeit goods. SOPA's provisions include court orders requiring Internet service providers to block access to websites that infringe on copyrights, barring advertising companies from conducting business with infringing websites, and even requiring search engines to no longer allow linking to the websites committing offense.[1] The proposed law would have expanded existing criminal laws to include unauthorized streaming of copyrighted content, imposing a maximum penalty of five years in prison.[1] This bill’s intended purpose was to protect intellectual-property market, jobs and revenue, and bolster enforcement of copyright laws. The bolstering of copyrighted laws used for protecting intellectual-property was especially needed against foreign-owned and operated websites which current copyright laws failed to adequately protect. [1]
Arguments for SOPA Who supported SOPA and why? There were four major supporters of the bill. These supporters ranged from lobbying groups(to the government) charged with protecting the interests of their clients , political officials, and companies. One gr The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) states that they support the bill because legislation is needed to "stop foreign thieves from stealing hard work and creativity of millions of American workers."[3] Another supporter is the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). These are two organizations most impacted by online piracy because there mission is to protect and represent their respective industries. According to statistics created by the RIAA online piracy has had these effects on the music industry [4]:
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Since peer-to-peer (p2p) file-sharing site Napster emerged in 1999, music sales in the U.S. have dropped 53 percent, from $14.6 billion to $7.0 billion in 2013.
From 2004 through 2009 alone, approximately 30 billion songs were illegally downloaded on file-sharing networks.
The NPD Group, a market research company, reports that only 37 percent of music acquired by U.S. consumers in 2009 was paid for.
According to the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, the digital theft of music, movies and copyrighted content takes up huge amounts of Internet bandwidth – 24 percent globally, and 17.5 percent in the U.S.
Digital storage locker downloads constitute 7 percent of all Internet traffic, while 91 percent of the links found on them were for copyrighted material, and 10 percent of those links were to music specifically, according to a 2011 Envisional study."
Pfizer is the world's largest research-based pharmaceutical company and went on record in support of SOPA. John P. Clark, Pfizer's Chief Security Officer and VP stated in front of the House Judiciary Committee that:[2]
“Counterfeit medicines pose a threat because of the conditions under which they are manufactured – in unlicensed and unregulated
topics on this issue. The media does hit the main topics: why online piracy is illegal, and why people still do it. However, what people don’t know is how it affects the entertainment industry, how it affects the artist, and the different arguments to SOPA and PIPA; two online censorship bills. There are many different arguments and ways to look at this complex issue, which has been at the forefront of computer politics for years. ONLINE PIRACY: There are many points of view other than support for…
intellectual property theft. The two legislations Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA) recently tried to be passed through the US Congress. These two acts in an effort to permanently stop all online piracy, would’ve essentially changed the face of the internet as we know it. 90 - 95% of websites would be shut down or fined all to combat piracy. The large uproar from corporations and citizens stopped SOPA and PIPA in their tracks on their way throught Congress, but it does raise…
increase in discussions regarding “Censorship of the Internet”, explain how Censorship can work in some instances but in others it can be a detriment to society). Censorship of Internet has been under a hot discussion for the past many years. In some cases it has been useful to control and manipulate traffic over the Internet. But there are millions of Internet lovers who wish to improve the present condition of the Internet so that the world may succeed day by day. Some people believe that internet-censor…
(Rininsland 1). There remains a connection between counties with out democracy and those who censor their Internet, this may be because these types of governments usually like to keep their people more restricted and under control. On the other hand in the cases where there is no restriction to what can be put online; this causes the content of the Internet to grow at an uncontrollable rate and when some people can’t access this information the potential of the Internet to spread intelligence substantially…
the creator of a work—be it a painting, book, video game, or movie—from being ripped off. But thanks to the force of lobbies, copyright law actually protects the interests of publishers and broadcasters. The recently shelved Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), which would have let a publisher demand that copyrighted works be removed from the Internet, was the creation of lobbies and associations, not individual artists.” (Sebastian 35) This problem is becoming more relevant as technology continues to increase…
security number – those would be extreme cases – but could only be a person’s age and physical address, which would be enough in most cases to identify a specific person. Non-PII includes things like viewing tendencies on a specific website (cookies). Many argue that information is so readily available on the internet today that protecting internet privacy is a lost cause, such as Steve Rambam, private investigator specializing in Internet privacy cases, who says, “Privacy is dead – get over it…
threats. Online piracy being one of them because the music and film industry loses £5.4bn in a year and if it was reduced by 10% it could have created up to 13 thousand jobs in the UK. There are various attempts taken to fight with online piracy; a case study of Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement will be considered as well as other legislations attempting to regulate copyrights in the Internet. This…
pass yet another piece of legislation that will define not just how we access the Internet, but how the Internet accesses us: H.R. 3523, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA). This bill is yet another form of legislation similar to SOPA, PIPA, ACTA, OPEN, et al. CISPA’s aim is “To provide for the sharing of certain cyber threat intelligence and cyber threat information between the intelligence community and cybersecurity entities, and for other purposes” (112th Congress). Like the…
------------------------------------------------- Bullying From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia For the Wikipedia guidance essay, see Wikipedia:WikiBullying Bullying is detrimental to students’ well-being and development.[1] Bullying is the use of force or coercion to abuse or intimidate others. The behavior can be habitual and involve an imbalance of social or physical power. It can include verbal harassment or threat, physical assault or coercion and may be directed repeatedly towards…