Stopping Illegal Downloading

This week in my Internet Communications class we discussed copyright laws that were created by the media and our government. According to Attorney General, Martha Coakley, "A copyright is a form of protection, granted by the laws of the United States, to the creator of an original work of authorship including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works, to control the distribution, usually for a limited time, after the work enters the public domain". The risks involved in illegally reproducing or distributing copyrighted material are significant. It is against the law both to upload and download the copyrighted works of others without express permission to do so. It is stealing and both civil and criminal penalties are severe. If the penalties are already severe and a huge  portion of our generation is still stealing documents, and music than how can we stop this?

I believe that one way to at least slow down piracy of music would be for music artist to lower the cost of purchasing there music. When you purchase a new released album from a store, you may pay anywhere from $10-$20 for an average of 16 songs. You may only like two or three songs on that CD. When iTunes came out it allowed you to purchase not only whole albums but individual songs as well. The average cost for a song would be about a dollar. Now that you could purchase only the songs that you liked for a cheaper price, why are we still downloading them for free illegally?

There are several "file sharing" website that are readily available to the younger generation. I want to see the government place stronger restrictions on this type of website. The government should have the power to shut down a website where illegal file sharing takes place.

Since the media is a huge influencing power, they should do more to let people know that file sharing is illegal. The media companies should also inform the public of the consequences of breaking the law.

Personalization and Our Privacy

Personalized content is highly valued among online users, according to consumer surveys. The problem with personalizing a web page is privacy threats, because of all the personal data that is collected on the consumer. Online privacy is a top concern for most consumer today. When we like a page on Facebook, later there are similar ads that pop up on our homepage. Some advertising agencies look for key words in things we post to social media sites, and then they post ads relating to our post on our home page. How is our privacy being kept private if this is happening?

According to Kobsa, "current privacy theory regards people's privacy-related behavior as the result of a situation-specific cost-benefit analysis, in which potential risks of disclosing one's personal information are weighed against potential benefits of disclosure". This is a problem because the general public is ignorant on what information is safe to give out, and what isn't. Always be careful to whom you give out your social security number, but did you know it can be just as detrimental to give out your full birthday too.

Forty countries already have privacy laws, but with technology advancing daily and custom personalization increasing I think that these laws should be re-evaluated every 5 years at least. This will potentially help protect consumers privacy. Educating the public on online privacy may to cut down on fraud.

The question I propose is: Will online privacy threats become the downfall for our economy?

I ask this because I believe that one day in the near future privacy will no longer exist. Consumers will no longer be able to purchase merchandise online without fraud occurring. This could deter future purchases and cripple the economy slightly.