Legal and Ethical Issues

Legal and Ethical Issues

Porter, E. Copyright Ruling Rings With Echo of Betamax"  retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/27/business/in-a-copyright-ruling-the-lingering-legacy-of-the-betamax.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0.

This article states that media companies have been fighting the copyright battle since Sony Betamax recorder first came out in 1976. The Supreme Court just barely ruled in favor of Sony 5-4.  The rule "first sale" allowed companies like Blockbuster, Netflix, and Redbox to continue renting and reselling videos.  Studios use software locks on DVD's, they are coded by regions so buying a cheaper DVD from Asia won't play in DVD player in the U.S.  For printed materials (textbooks), publishing companies sell these books for less in other countries.  People buy them and bring it the U.S. and sell them here.  They were taken to court but saved by "first sale" doctrine.  Digital Millennium Copyright Act gives owners complete control of their products.  I understand that the legal owners derserve to profit from their product, but why are Americans being punished by having to pay more for the same item that is sold for much cheaper in other countries (digital media and print)?  These studios and publishers are really greedy.  These same studios won't give a newbee the time of day.  So for these unknown artist's putting their material on the internet gives them free publicity.  Once they become famous, then they copyright their products for profit.

Final note, it is illegal for people to take copyrighted materials for free, but it is unethical for these studios to charge these high prices for these products.

Privacy and Security

Discuss the problem of privacy and the Internet:

Privacy is a big issue in today's technological world.  In the article "Information Privacy: Changing Norms and Expectations" they state that today information now flows freely among radio waves in our wireless devices and along fiber optic cables that connect the evergrowing cloud data servers.  It’s cached, distributed, forwarded, copied, mirrored and indexed. Facebook, Amazon, Yahoo and a host of similar sites all store huge amounts of our personal data.  No one is immune. Even the former director of the CIA can be tracked.  In the name of national security, law enforcement agencies can obtain a search warrant for this metadata.  Facebook privacy is very confusing.  Think twice about posting stuff on Facebook because most likely it could be seen by anybody.  "Possession is nine-tenths of the law." But whom do all of these digital photographs belong to: the person who posed for the photograph, the person in the background, or the person who took the photo.  It is extremely rare for someone to not have a digital print.  Every computer at a minimum should have a firewall and anti-virus software.  Preferably it should also contain anti-malware and anti-spyware programs. 

Twitter

How do you think a Twitter conversation compares with Blackboard and Blog conversations. Which do you prefer?  Which company/politician did you follow?  What kind of posts did they have?

In my opinion, Twitter is more of a recreation with limited response page (only 140 characters).  Blogs are more for creating longer responses, articles.  Blackboard are for the university body.  For classroom use/discussions I prefer using blackboard.  For recreation tweets/twitter.  Blogs are more for people with a common interest.
I followed AT&T. They tweeted advertisements for their various services.

Social Media

Sorry for making this last second. I thought this was part B that was due on 3/11/13.

What is social media?
From the article making an Impression social media is new media using Web 2.0 where people interact thru virtual communities or networking where they can share or exchange ideas, such as  audio and video streaming, blogs,  social networking sites, and user-generated content.

I have a facebook account, but I don't put a lot of my own info into it.  Mostly I get alerts from my friends and what they are up too.
I just got a twitter account for this class, and have not used it yet, so can't comment on it, until later on. By the end of the semester I probably will become more diligent of using social media.

World Wide Web

What does the future of the World Wide Web look like?  What is 'the Cloud'?

I believe the World Wide Web (WWW) isn't going anywhere any time soon.  With the advent of 'the Cloud', WWW is  only going to expand.  From the article "The Windy City Teams with Microsoft on Cloud Strategy"  and also in a previous article "Microsoft Scores A Win For Office 365 With Chicago Deal" the city of Chicago has signed a deal with Microsoft to consolidate its email system to Office365.  From the article "Cloud Computing: As software migrates from local PCs to distant Internet servers, users and developers alike go along for the ride", they say that the isolated computer with its "shrink-wrap" software is still dominating the market because their are still some flaws as stated in the article "‘The Cloud’ Challenges Amazon" where Netflix and Amazon crashed during Christmas, but as they improve people will gradually shift over to the 'Cloud' based computing.

 'the Cloud' is the use of computing resources (hardware & software) that are delivered as a service over a network (usually the internet).

Networks and Communication

Answer the following questions: What are the advantages and disadvantages of communication technology such as email, texting, IM, Skype, etc.?  What advice do you have to to help overcome issues with these technologies, such as spam, phishing, texting and driving, etc. \

From the article “You’ve Got E-Mail!”… Shall I Deal With It Now? some of the advantages with all this technology is that it is much quicker, more reliable and efficient than using a phone or face to face, or using regular post mail.

 Disadvantages:
 From the video

"Texting woman falls in fountain, files lawsuit"

People, myself included, have really dumbed down with all this technology at the tip of fingers.  People are not paying attention to what they are doing.  This lady was only walking, what if she were driving. That's why texting and driving is just as bad as drinking and driving.  It was wrong for the security guard to laugh at her. I have almost ran into things while busy on my phone.  This lady is just trying to get some easy money thru no fault of the mall.  It's these kind of people, with their frivolous lawsuits, that make it harder for the rest of us decent folks to live in society.

Belgian Woman’s GPS Leads Her on 900-Mile Detour

Here is another example of how we take technology for granted.  We think technology is like the word of god. When you have to fill up your gas tank, twice for that matter and take a motel for the night, shouldn't common sense kick in and realize something is wrong with this.

With all of this technology there is less need for face to face, less social activities, people become more asocial.

Another disadvantage of technology I think , especially with cell phones is that it is tethered to us.  People expect you to be available 24/7 like doctors, and they get offended when you don't respond to them immediately.  Which I think is ridiculous.

 

 

With this technology it is easier for hackers to invade our privacy with spam/phisiing/malware.  People should first have there OS/antivirus software updated.  Make strong unique passwords for each account.  And try to avoid using these accounts in public hotspots.

From the spiderman movie/comics,  "With great power comes great responsibility."  

Great Super Bowl Game

What a great Super Bowl. I was kind of rooting for the 49ers, but what a second half.  Hated the power outage. Got so irritated I almost shut the game off.  Glad I didn't.  What a great comeback that fell just a little short for the 49ers.  You would think in today's world of technology, things like this wouldn't happen.  Nobody is giving an explanation of the cause of the power outage.