Computer Laws The No Electronic Theft Act of 1997 (NET Act) was enacted to provide law enforcement and prosecuting attorneys with the appropriate tools to combat copyright violations on the Internet (Easttom & Taylor, 2011). “This law made it a federal crime to reproduce, distribute, or share copies of electronic copyrighted works (Easttom & Taylor, 2011)”. Basically, you can’t copy, sell, or share copyrighted software, videos, music, eBooks, games, etc. It is also a crime to distribute such copyrighted material, even if the distributor does so without any financial gain (Easttom & Taylor, 2011).The No Electronic Theft Act of 1997 also made it a crime to remove a copyright notice from an electronic product and knowingly place a false copyright …show more content…
Nowadays, there are more ways to commit electronic theft. There are so many illegal downloads and sharing happening of copyrighted material. If the law was amended to include this change, it would put a dent in the social media driven world where everything is shared, reproduced, and distributed. “Social media networks have a significant impact on content consumption and redistribution due to their real-time nature and the way they have been constructed via ‘hashtags’ and ‘likes’ to spread information quickly (Fenigson, 2015)”. Ultimately, more people would be convicted of the crime because it is being done on a greater level due to the amount of technology that is …show more content…
This allowed prosecutors to go after defendants for doing exactly what LaMacchia did (Goldman & Gladstone, n.d.). “In December 2000, Jason Spatafore, a computer technician, pleaded guilty to a single violation of the Act (Goldman & Gladstone, n.d.)”. “He posted, and encouraged downloading of, parts of “Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace” on various Web sites resulting in him being sentenced to two years’ probation and fined $250 (Goldman & Gladstone, n.d.)”. The challenge with this particular trial was the fact that he was being prosecuted for a single instance of distributing copyrighted material. If this standard was generally applied, it would cause a lot of Americans to be prosecuted. “Nevertheless, given his willfulness and the copyrighted work at hand (Star Wars I), his prosecution was still within Congress’ goals (Goldman & Gladstone, n.d.)”. I believe the prosecution handled the challenges effectively due to the fact that they were still able to sentence him to two years’ probation and fine him $250. “However, while the prosecutions are consistent with the Act’s objectives, the Act still hasn’t accomplished its core objective of reducing piracy (Goldman & Gladstone, n.d.)”. Although, you cannot really measure how socially beneficial creating the No Electronic Theft Act of 1997 has been, it
Chapter six of Blown to Bits by Hal Abelson, Ken Ledeen, and Harry Lewis focuses on the availability of bits via the internet and how easily they can be stolen. They discuss how companies attempt to combat this issue and potential issues that this can present. Throughout the chapter, the authors contemplate the effects that the internet has had on copyright infringement and legislation surrounding that. They discuss authorized use and rulings surrounding it. The overarching theme of the chapter seems to be that the internet was made to share information, however; in that process, information can be stolen easily, and that issue is not easy to combat.
An option that copyright owners have considered toward protecting their works from circulating in P2P networks is to use a variety of technological tools to prevent piracy. Such tools would be capable of blocking, decoying and redirecting the connections of unauthorized copyrighted file transfers. However, federal and state laws such as the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of ...
Have you ever seen a movie that cost you $250,000 and five years of your life? Because that is what committing the crime of physical piracy costs you. There are two different types of piracy such as digital and physical. Both have the same principal behind them. Many people don’t consider piracy as a real crime. Because there is no physical evidence of digital piracy, often people see nothing wrong with what they are doing. In reality, they are committing a similar crime as the person who walks in a store and steals a DVD. In both cases, the patron is responsible for his or her actions and should be punished justly. The definition of stealing is to take another person’s property without legal permission and without intending to return it. Stealing is not only morally wrong, but can also get someone in trouble with the law. Piracy has become more of a trend and easier than ever with the new digital age.
Computer misuse Act It is an act of the parliament of the UK redacted in 1990 as a measure to cope to the new technological threats. Old traditional forms of crime such as harassment and fraud offences are being committed electronically via computers or internet nowadays. Lately are appearing new forms of e-crime using new technologies such as Denial of Service ( DOS ) attack and phishing by offenders with good technical knowledge in IT.Thus laws in our society needs to be updated to deal to the new forms of crime. Computer misuse Act has been enacted after some cyber attacks, for instance the hacking attack against British Telecom commited by Robert Schifreen and Stephen Gold, between 1984 and 1985, using conventional devices such as a
Shawn Fanning brought the first example of illegal downloading to us in the summer of 1999 (Abbott 2003). Fanning provided the public with downloadable tracks of music using a program known as Napster. At its prime, there were over 80 million registered users downloading from Napster (Lam 2001). Only 6 months after operation, the RIAA (the Recording Industry Association of America) filed a lawsuit against Shawn Fanning and Napster for $100,000 per each downloaded song. The legal problem with Napster was that downloaders were not paying the due royalties to the artist and producers. Napster and its contemporary, Audiogalaxy, were not exact forms of shareware, so the RIAA was able to sue them as companies. The people who were actually doing the downloading got off scotch-free with thousands of free downloaded music tracks. As a result of the case Napster was shut down. Today we are introduced to subsequent forms of downloading, like KaZaA,Bearshare, and limewire would create a whole new kind of trouble f...
Over the past decade the societal view of creative society has greatly changed due to advances in computer technology and the Internet. In 1995, aware of the beginning of this change, two authors wrote articles in Wired Magazine expressing diametrically opposed views on how this technological change would take form, and how it would affect copyright law. In the article "The Emperor's Clothes Still Fit Just Fine" Lance Rose hypothesized that the criminal nature of copyright infringement would prevent it from developing into a socially acceptable practice. Thus, he wrote, we would not need to revise copyright law to prevent copyright infringement. In another article, Entitled "Intellectual Value", Esther Dyson presented a completely different view of the copyright issue. She based many her arguments on the belief that mainstream copyright infringement would proliferate in the following years, causing a radical revision of American ideas and laws towards intellectual property. What has happened since then? Who was right? This paper analyzes the situation then and now, with the knowledge that these trends are still in a state of transformation. As new software and hardware innovations make it easier to create, copy, alter, and disseminate original digital content, this discussion will be come even more critical.
The Internet has most publicly impacted Copyright legislation and thus this essay will focus on it specifically. Copyrights are ìoriginal works of authorship in any tangible medium of expression, Öfrom which the work can be perceived, reproduced or otherwise communicated, either directly or withÖ aidî (Bird, p.86). Not only has its existence and understanding been heightened by the general public, but violations against it have ìincreased on the Internet as far as its use and what is being used.î (Medieval Romance, p.1) ìNever before has it been so easy to violate a copyright ownerís exclusive right to copy.î (Bird, p.86) The Internet has increased piracy, it has changed legislation for both creators and infringers, it is been the precursor for harsher punishments to violators, and it has clouded jurisdiction principles.
Everything is stored on the internet including highly classified government information, and your bank information. How do we make sure no one steals, views, or sells your passwords, and private information? Congress passed a law in 1986 called the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) to protect the government’s information. Many laws have been passed that revises the CFAA. The CFAA has imprisoned many people, and many people want changes to the CFAA today.
Computer misuse Act 1990 is a law that constitutes against certain activities using computers such as hacking into other people or organisations software’s, misusing software’s, supporting an individual to get into a protected file on another computer. This act is split into three sections which are; Unauthorised access to computer Unauthorised access to computer systems with intent to commit another offence Unauthorised modification of computer materials These are the three sections which computer misuse act 1990 is segmented. Unauthorised access to computer is when an employee in Apple gains access to another colleague’s computer, privacy sites etc or confidential system which they are not permitted to. This is also known as hacking
Physical piracy-the copying and illegal sale of hard-copy CDs, videotapes, and DVDs-costs the music industry over $4 billion a year worldwide and the movie industry more than $3.5 billion. These numbers do not factor in the growing (and difficult to measure) problem of Internet piracy, in which music and movies are transferred to digital format and copies are made of the resulting computer file. Journalist Charles C. Mann explains why Internet piracy has the potential to be vastly more damaging to copyright industr...
All of us know about the crimes committed every day by people all over the world. Theft, assault, grand theft auto, underage drinking, fraud, prostitution, and rape. But what about crimes on the internet? Last year, SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) was introduced to the world. If this bill was passed, many sites would have to censor certain pieces of information, as well as remove a lot of the content already uploaded. SOPA would also crack down on terminating torrent sites, which are used to share files such as music, movies, video games, e-books, and whatever else is a digital file. In my opinion, SOPA should not be passed due to the fact that censoring information on the internet is an act against the first amendment. SOPA should not be passed due to the fact that it goes against the first amendment and will lead to a corrupt information sharing system.
Social Media is a current way in which people are using to interact with one another daily. Since the launch of various Social Networking Sites (SNS) its been a huge attraction in a new way to share information with others and correspond with interests of your choice in many different forms. Although social media sites allow users to share information with friends and other sites on the internet, many people are unaware of how their privacy is getting out. Now that the expansion of global connection through these social media networking sites are so highly present in todays society, giving us easy access to information, the lack of one's privacy is being diminished. Everyday peoples privacy rights are being taken advantage of and the government should therefore implement more laws to avoid violating users. This is affecting countless users online and is a problem because personal information may get out that is not wanted.
The first reason why downloading and uploading copyrighted materials from the Internet should be legal is that downloading copyrighted materials positively affects the economy. The European Commission Joint Research Center reported that the profits of music companies would be 2% lower if uploading and downloading copyrighted materials were banned. However, music companies are able to acquire more profits despite illegal downloading because many people tend to purchase CDs or DVDs after watching or listening to copyrighted materials for free. Moreover, the research showed that people who download music illegally spent more money to buy music than people who did not download illegally. In addition, research conducted by the Swiss government informed that one-third of Swiss people downloaded copyrighted materials from the Internet because personal use of copyrighted materials is legal in Switzerland. Even though there is a fact that many people can download copyrighted materials from the Internet legally in Switzerland, the amount of money that people spend to buy copyrighted materials is not f...
With the popularity of the Internet, sales for CDs, DVDs, Movies, and many other products have increased. Along with the increase of sales has brought forth an ever increasing problem of illegal media being downloaded. Programs such as Bittorent, Kazaa, and other direct-connect networking programs have allowed the transferring of such illegal media. Downloading song files from the Internet over a free peer to peer network is the moral equivalent of shoplifting music CDs from the local mall.
At the dawn of the internet, many things such as books and text became obsolete, due to insufficient monitoring of internet activity and sites. Individuals were able to gain free access to books and publications that normally needed to be bought, or required a fee. This is something that has caused problems for booksellers and publishers. Now, as technology advances, it also begins the decline of music, software, and television industries—but something can be done before it’s too late. Illegal downloading is a problem that affects us all, either directly or indirectly. Many people do not take it too seriously. They have not realized that it is an epidemic; like a disease that keeps growing as people become more knowledgeable about computers and learn more about how software runs. People openly burn music CDs and download music and movies for friends who in turn give it to their friends; it’s a never-ending cycle on illegal practices. The problem started when Napster came out and should have ended when it was shutdown. Unfortunately, not enough has been done to stop the illegal transfer of files. It’s time someone takes full action and ends this detrimental offense.