Piracy of Data Over the Internet - Admission/Application Essay Example

? of the of the of the The SOPA and PIPA Act. What are the SOPA and the PIPA Acts is the main theme of our discussion today. Piracy of data over the internet has been a distressful issue since the inception of the internet. Since the world wide web has the ability to incorporate the work of whoever wants to use it and with the purpose of free access to it from everyone. The free access is for the reason that the information may be put to use for others as well. INTRODUCTION and BACKGROUND The most affected by the misuse of their authentic content uploaded over the internet are the media people. The piracy of movies and their exact replicas being sold for nominal prices without any copyright are the most major problems the freeness of data has bought up. For a long time media companies have tried to fight piracy by either suing individual users or getting their web portals shut under the influence of government led campaigns. However none of the stated actions were comprehensive enough to stop users from accessing those websites are for not letting those websites run from newer portals. As a way to curb the problem of internet piracy SOPA and PIPA were introduced. These were two separate bills that were introduced in ten House of Representatives and the U S Senate respectively. Both the proposed bills were aimed at targeting foreign websites that illegally misused content of other websites’ copyrighted material. They were concerned not only with copyrighted issues of media but with those of medication and some other goods. However, the bills were going to affect not only the targeted audience but were aiming at normal internet users as well. They were technically targeting to remove the business connections of any sites that were defying copyright laws or were facilitating such defiance. These bills also suggested that the search engine links to such sites and payment processing of all such sites be blocked via legal influence. However, due to the broad spectrum of the bills many of the legitimately running sites were also at stake. Moreover, the freewill of the general user was also uselessly coming to stake under the boundaries of the proposed bills. The stance at present is to oppose the promulgation of laws that would restrict the access of information to common internet and still not prove to be fully capable of curbing the copyright issue it is supposed to restrict. For study into the matter a number of sources were consulted over the internet and their views are also being narrated in the lines that follow. FIRST SOURCE: The First post under consideration s one from the ‘Huffington post’ January 18th issue. Titled as “SOPA Showdown: What’s next in the Battle between Hollywood and Silicon Valley?” The article is an overview of the issues related to the bills Stop Online Piracy Act SOPA and Protect IP Act PIPA and the alternates that they may have in the current scenario. The author emphasizes that there exists a tension between the world of media and those who call the digital world of the World Wide Web as their own. He narrates that it is about time that the media people should stop fighting those illegitimately using their content and should intelligently tackle them by befriending them instead. This is more likely to help the issue of online piracy. The author narrates how SOPA and PIPA are relatively strict acts and they may curb the freedom of expression on the World Wide Web which was initially targeted as its major use. The proposed bills received far reaching opposition from not only internet firms but also from individuals. As a result the bills have been curbed for now. Instead, a relatively less strict bill Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Act (OPEN) is being promulgated nowadays. Experts strictly suggest that instead of legislation a point of agreement among the two parties that have their interests involved would serve better for the protection and prevailing of privacy and culmination of piracy. The article is aimed at telling the general public the conceptual understanding of software piracy and the point of views about the bills SOPA and PIPA that were being proposed to curb it. The article presents the strong notion of proposed collaboration between the Internet gurus and the media people backing the privacy based acts. SECOND SOURCE: The second post under consideration is one from the ‘Network Times’ January 18th 2012 issue. The article is titled as “Beyond SOPA.” The article begins by hailing the halting of the proposed internet piracy bills SOPA and PIPA. It tells how these bills were aimed at curbing the freedom of speech of each respective individual. The article also emphasizes upon the need to curb the violation of copyright laws being done freely in countries like China and Russia where millions of dollars’ worth music and films are copies and sold at cheap rates without any check and balance on them. The article advocates a legislation that curbs illegal copying and still does not curb the freedom of speech. The bill named OPEN or Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade. It proposes that a provision would be provided to content owners where they would be able to ask the International Trade Commission whether any particular website had been found to have been a part of internet piracy or not. If found to have been indulged, all the payment websites like PayPal etcetera would be stopped from dealing with the website and a total boycott of it would be done by search engines as well. The OPEN act is supposed to target only the websites that are willfully indulged in the process of piracy. It would not target any such sites that would not act against the sites that would some way or the other be linked to a privacy prone website. The OPEN bill is expected to restrict abuse by not letting the copyright conscious display banners against those who pirate data. The proposed bill is aimed at giving rights to copyright holders so that they may protect themselves from losing their signature data. The author has written a comprehensive article introducing an alternate to the SOPA and PIPA bills. It carefully narrates the provisions that would be available for the general public and the copyright possessors as well. He emphasizes upon the need for both sides to pave way for the promulgation of better rules and ways. THIRD SOURCE: The Third post under consideration s one from the ‘Los Angeles Times’ January 18th 2012 issue. Titled as “Websites go Dark to Protest SOPA, PIPA Bills” This source is a comprehensive article that narrates the reactions that emerged upon the emergence of the Bills that were concerned with the SOPA and PIPA legislations. As the name of the article suggests, the article narrates how the internet gurus reacted to the legislations that are concerned with privacy. The main giants such as Google and Wikipedia etcetera closed their web portals for an entire 24 hours. Their claim was that the promulgation of such laws was the same as censoring the entire web for the sake of piracy. Writing about Wikipedia the author tells how the site darkened all of its pages with a small note added to them that said that said that what the world would look like if there was no free knowledge available to people to access. It even gave a link to a page where the details of the proposed legislations were narrated. This instance was taken by the site specifically on the day when the Congress was supposed to throw light on the decision as to whether the said bills should be promulgated or not. The site specifically mentioned that the protest that they launched was only in order to increase awareness among individuals and the legislations. The Reddit sire is then mentioned. The site promoted its visitors to take action against the proposed bills. It stated that the day should be aimed at focusing the issue of copyright and the bills that were not targeting the concern strictly. The thought that the most widely accessed websites wouldn’t be available for surfing for about 24 hours panicked a number of parents and students in particular with everyone trying to get their important tasks done before the sites began their blackout protest. The websites that participated in the blackout for 24 hours have the message that though the legislations were aimed for good but they had many flaws in them because of which the issue they seemed to address along with privacy was the restriction of rights on the internet. The sites emphasized that the bills un- intentionally threatened their existence and were a threat to the freedom of speech and accessibility of the World Wide Web. The article has been written very well in the sense that it demonstrates the actions that different companies took in order to aware the broad spectrum of Internet surfers about the staunch and hidden nature that were being considered for approval by the congress in the name of copyright and privacy. The hidden aspects were definitely worth being protested against. FOURTH SOURCE: The Fourth post under consideration s one from the ‘The Atlantic Wire’ January 20 2012 issue. Titled as “SOPA-PIPA alternative bill just found an opening in its path forward.” The mentioned is a well written piece of work that advocates the expected win of the ‘OPEN’ bill over the rejected ‘SOPA’ and ‘PIPA’ legislations. The author emphasizes how the people and also the houses of the senate and congress were keen to take up and decide over the controversial bills that seemingly advocated the copyright issues but had a lot in their platter besides that. The article greets the rejection of the earlier bills as a sign to the acceptance of the new bill. The Senators proposing this new bill were quoted as being hopeful of its acceptance since it was not an as harsh bill as its earlier counterparts. The article emphasizes that before the congress approves any bill regarding the internet at all it is essential that the members of the said house should be made aware of the basic concepts of the internets and its infrastructure so that they are able to realistically decided about the liability of decisions regarding it. The article is a well-structured attempt to emphasize the existence of the newly proposed OPEN bill as an intelligent and comprehensive successor to the already Rejected SOPA and PIPA bills. It provides healthy content by increasing emphasis that the Senators would be made aware of the basics of the issue before they get to decide anything about it. Thus it is expected that the subsequent acceptance/ rejection shall be for good only. CONCLUSION Conclusively it may be said that the issue of copyright in the internet holds significant importance and has been addressed well by the selected news sources. The need for a legislation and what bills have been introduced, compared with the latest information regarding the issue formulated a healthy comprehensive analysis of the situation regarding the proposed bills. It was eventually assessed that the copyright holders and the internet saviors need to work in coalition in order to resolve the much important matter. Works Cited: “SOPA Showdown: What’s next in the battle between Hollywood and Silicon Valley?” Huffington Post the Internet Newspaper, January 18, 2012. Final ed.: B1+ 23 February, 2012 HSU, Tiffany and Chang, Andrea. “Websites go dark to protest SOPA, PIPA Bills.” The Los Angeles Times on the Web, Jan 18 2012. Final ed.: B1+ 23 February, 2012 Editorial. “Beyond SOPA.” The New York Times on the Web, January 28 2012. Final ed.: B1+ 24 February, 2012 Estes, Clark Adam. “The SOPA-PIPA opening Bill just found an opening in its path forward.” The Atlantic Wire on the Web, Jan 20, 2012. final ed.: B1+ 24 February, 2012 Read More