...The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) is a United States bill introduced by U.S. Representative Lamar S. Smith (R-TX) to expand the ability of U.S. law enforcement to fight online trafficking in copyrighted intellectual property and counterfeit goods. Provisions include the requesting of court orders to bar advertising networks and payment facilities from conducting business with infringing websites, and search engines from linking to the sites, and court orders requiring Internet service providers to block access to the sites. The law would expand existing criminal laws to include unauthorized streaming of copyrighted content, imposing a maximum penalty of five years in prison. A similar bill in the U.S. Senate is titled the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA). Proponents of the legislation state it will protect the intellectual-property market and corresponding industry, jobs and revenue, and is necessary to bolster enforcement of copyright laws, especially against foreign websites. Claiming flaws in present laws that do not cover foreign-owned and operated sites, and citing examples of "active promotion of rogue websites" by U.S. search engines, proponents assert stronger enforcement tools are needed. Opponents state the proposed legislation threatens free speech and innovation, and enables law enforcement to block access to entire internet domains due to infringing content posted on a single blog or webpage. They have raised concerns that SOPA would bypass the "safe harbor" protections from...
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...Introduction The report focuses the controversial topic of SOPA and PIPA. In the report, we will introduce the aims of the two bills and debate whether they are reasonable or not. In the end of discussion, we come to the conclusion that the two should not be passed. Both of the supporter and oppose will provide their reasons. And each of them will attack his/her rival’s argument. The aims of SOAP and PIPA The aim of SOPA The full name of SOPA is Stop Online Privacy Act. It is a United States bill which is attempt by lawmakers to combat online privacy and intellectual property theft. The bill is divided into two sections: “Combating Online Privacy” and “Additional Enhancements to Combat Intellectual Property Theft”. The main aim of SOPA is that give the judicial departments of United States more rights to fight online trafficking in copyrighted intellectual property and counterfeit goods in other areas and other countries. “Combating Online Privacy” attempts to provide tools to law enforcement. “Additional Enforcements to Combat Intellectual Property Theft” clarifies criminal law as applied to intellectual property rights. With the protection of SOPA, lawmakers want to encourage new writings, research, products and services. Because in the old day American inventors, authors, and entrepreneurs have been forced to stand by and watch as their works are stolen by foreign infringers beyond the reach of current U.S. law. As the time goes by, more and more people lose the...
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...Internet Censorship - SOPA In the past twenty years, the Internet has grown to become an integral part of human function. The unique beauty of the Internet is that it enables its users to share their views and data to a worldwide audience and have their voice heard instantly. Unfortunately, the flexibility of the Internet also allows it to be exploited for illegal activity such as the distribution and theft of copyrighted content. Many governments find this problematic to their economies and are making increased efforts to control Internet use through censorship. The United States recently introduced the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in an attempt to fight online trafficking of copyrighted intellectual property and counterfeit goods by enabling law enforcement to block access to entire Internet domains. While proponents of the legislation argue this is necessary to bolster enforcement of copyright laws, opponents argue the proposed legislation threatens free speech. SOPA provides just one example of how controversial Internet censorship proves to be . The entertainment industry has always desired more strict regulation on Internet piracy for many years. Pirated data has become more easily accessible and more elusive than ever. The biggest supporters of SOPA include the Motion Picture Association of America and the Recording Industry Association of America, dealing with movies and music, respectively. The case for SOPA is to protect copyrighted content and those who produce...
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...Pending in the US House of Representatives is H.R. 3261, also known as the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). Introduced on October 26, 2011 by Representative Lamar Smith (R-TX) and a bipartisan group of 12 co-sponsors, the bill expands the ability of U.S. law enforcement and copyright holders to fight online trafficking in copyrighted intellectual property and counterfeit goods created by U.S. firms. It aims to address the very prevalent problems of digital piracy, use of the internet to disseminate illegal and potentially dangerous items such as counterfeit prescription drugs, and the “rogue websites” that traffic in these illegal and infringing activities. Under the legislation, rights-holders will be able to request that a credit-card firm or advertising network stop doing business with a foreign site, ask a search engine to take down links to the site, or ask an internet-service provider to block the site’s domain name, making it harder to reach. Pros and Cons SOPA has several positive characteristics that make it a valuable bill. For example, current copyright enforcement laws have minimal effect on the large number of foreign websites that sell counterfeit products. As such, rights holders have become frustrated with the perceived lack of “teeth” of the current copyright enforcement laws. Under the new law, copyright owners would have the right to shut down any websites who replicate their music, videos, and other materials unauthorized. This would help induce those...
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...Information Technology Acts University of Phoenix Gustavo Perez Bis 220 April 14 2014 Jorge L. Berrios Trinidad Information Technology Acts Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) After the creation of Napster, the music p2p sharing system that is computer to computer. We started to see a rise or increase in what is now known by online piracy. Then people shared their music without knowing the legal consequences which incurred. Thanks to the creation of the MP3 music format, made it extremely easy to share on the internet entire music collection. Because of this group Metallica rock music and the record companies filed lawsuits against the Napster service. Then emerged others based on napster to share not only music systems, but also computer programs, movies, etc. In 2011 the House of Representatives of the Congress of the United States, proposed the Stop Piracy Act or SOPA, which pretended to attack online piracy by extending existing laws against trafficking of copyrighted content and counterfeit goods through the internet. The penalty for a person to forward copyright material ten (10) or more times in a period of six (6) months would expose a sentence of up to 5 years in jail. One of the ethical issues, was referring to the freedom of people in the internet. As mentioned earlier the creation of digital formats that allow people to share their music libraries and other files over the Internet, creating the torrent format...
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...point, where online piracy is a serious threat to the economics of all countries, especially the US, as most of the business is either conducted or closely related to the Internet. Hence, emerged a need to block piracy and make sure that people receive only what they paid for. Enter SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) as well as PIPA (Protect Intellectual Property Act) which is aimed to block resources and websites which have copyright infringement. Your Opinion Matters. What Would You Write in a SOPA Essay? How do you feel about the SOPA and PIPA? In times like these professors would require you to write a SOPA essay, PIPA essay, or SOPA PIPA research paper. And you will have to take the SOPA essays seriously, as your opinion, as well as the opinions of others, will show the direction of our future development. Can SOPA and PIPA Stop Copyright Infringement? Frankly, there are thousands of arguments for and against it, however with the lack of expertise in this field you might feel confused. And afterwards you ask yourself: “Is there anyone who can write my SOPA essay for me?” – and the answer is yes. BookwormLab.com can assist you in writing: * SOPA essay * PIPA essay * SOPA research paper * PIPA research paper * etc. Can Someone Else Be Entrusted with the Writing of Your Paper on SOPA&PIPA? Surely! As long as that someone is a skilled scholar from BookwormLab.com We employ quality Internet experts as well as writers proficient in the SOPA and PIPA problems...
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...SOPA Chill Out In a recent uproar, popular websites all over, such as Google and Facebook, participated in a blackout protest against the SOPA and PIPA Acts, which were in debate with the senate. The PIPA Act is designed to stop piracy, “with particular emphasis on illegal copies of films and other forms of media hosted on foreign servers” (BBC sopa and pipa 2012). The PIPA act grants the United States government, along with other right holders, the permission to request a court order against any website “enabling or facilitating" piracy. This court order potentially could have a whole website shut down “[making] them "disappear" from the internet” (BBC:sopa and pipa 2012). In addition, the SOPA Act would require all search-engines to remove infringing websites from their search results (BBC: sopa and pipa 2012). Although both Acts could prevent piracy rates from increasing, they also threaten to change the structure of the internet and potentially violate the constitutional right: Freedom of Speech. Background: Both the SOPA and PIPA Act are closely related to the censorship acts implanted in Iran and China, and more recently Spain (BBC: Sopa and Pipa 2012). In China, “the government has put a lot of resources into controlling and censoring the internet content available to its citizens.” Everything from online games to politically sensitive sites are censored and decided whether it should be made available to the public (S. Chen 2011). In China, western social networks...
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...SOPA – Stop Online Piracy Act http://www.pcworld.com/article/248298/sopa_and_pipa_just_the_facts.html http://www.forbes.com/sites/larrymagid/2012/01/18/what-are-sopa-and-pipa-and-why-all-the-fuss/ http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-57360665-503544/sopa-pipa-what-you-need-to-know/ http://www.digitaltrends.com/web/sopa-pipa-blackout-by-the-numbers/ http://www.good.is/post/what-would-a-post-sopa-internet-look-like http://news.yahoo.com/internet-could-sopa-passes-194753995.html I - Attention Getter: (Pictures from SOPA blackout protest) Before I begin my presentation, I’d like to show you some pictures. I think that you all know about I am presenting before you And for those who don’t, this is the blackout protest whose target is the controversial U.S. House of Representative bill, SOPA – STOP ONLINE PIRACY ACT Before going any further, I’d like to explain what is SOPA? It is a United States bill which is introduced by U.S. House of Representative, sponsored by Lama S. Smith to expand the ability of U.S. law enforcement to fight against online infringement of copyrighted intellectual property and counterfeit goods. And Wednesday 18 January marked the largest online protest in the history of the internet This is a quick view of SOPA protest through numbers (This is statistic from website digitaltrends) 75,000: Number of websites that participated in the blackout 25,000: Number of WordPress blogs that completely blacked out their sites to protest the bills 12...
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...SOPA, PIPA, and Internet Freedom Chase Fnords University of Liberty SOPA and Internet Freedom I. Introduction A. The internet is a vast, ever-expanding microcosm of information. As a tool, it provides the ability to share information with anyone in the world within seconds. Because of this ability, data that may be under copyright has been shared in a manner that may be deemed illegal. B. In recent history, legislation has been brought forth in congress to try to prevent the sharing of data that has been used without the copyright owner’s consent. Most recently, the legislation known as Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives, and the Protect IP Act (PIPA) in the U.S. Senate. C. Because of acts such as SOPA and PIPA, there have been protests by large Internet companies, as well as individuals, that believe their passage will limit free speech and infringe on the public’s First Amendment rights. II. Legislation Defined A. The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) is bill that was introduced as H.R.3261 in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2011. It will attempt to prevent the sharing of copyrighted and protected data over the internet from foreign sources. According to (Schatz, 2012) “The Justice Department could seek a court order requiring U.S. Internet providers to block access to foreign pirate websites. Access could be blocked either by making it impossible...
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...Title of your paper: PIPA & SOPA Introduction In this paper, the topics to be discussed are what is PIPA and SOPA, prior related acts or laws, impacts on the first and fourth amendment, impacts on e-commence, supporters, and oppositions. This topic may seem old, but it could always come back later. Back in 2011 and 2012, there was a big fight between Congress and the Internet sites. This fight was over PIPA and SOPA which people associated it with censoring the Internet. However, it was much more than just censoring the Internet. It violated not one, but two amendments that are granted to every U.S. citizen. It also had the potential to hurt e-commence. As Wikipedia said on one of it’s blackout pages in 2012 “Imagine a world without free knowledge” and that is exactly what these sites were trying to protect. Yes, they may have won for now, but there is always a chance these acts could show up again. What is PIPA? PIPA is short for PROTECT IP Act or Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act. This bill was introduced to the Senate on May 12, 2011 (U.S. Senate, 2011). This act would “enhance enforcement against rogue websites operated and registered overseas” (U.S. Senate, 2011). Once the Attorney General gets a court order for the “rogue” site, the notice can be served to financial transaction providers (such as PayPal) to stop processing payments immediately, advertising networks to stop promoting the site or advertising...
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...Introduction Ethical theories date back to the times of Socrates and Aristotle, the problem with ethical and moral theories is that information technology was not even a possibility when first developed. Lines can be crossed and personal ambiguity can help people act bolder then he/she may normally want too. Ethical theories are being used more and more to help the professional and computing world handle the rapid change while government and legislation try to catch up. Law and guidelines have been made, but in the haste to create them many are poorly designed and implemented, hurting people that have seemed to do nothing wrong. Information technology is a global profession and increases the difficulty when dealing with different scenarios. Presented with the same scenario an IT professional in Japan may handle it completely different than another professional in the USA. Setting standards and ideals for all computing professionals is key to the continuing growth of information technology. Legal and Ethical Issues The computing professional faces legal and ethical issues in information technology every day. Many of the biggest issues that IT professionals face include the ever growing concern with piracy and ownership of information. Current laws and regulations allow software and intellectual property to be coved by both copyrights and patents. However the bigger concern is how software does not fit into either role. Software patents are becoming more common, they...
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...of committing piracy, or breaking the law, many people always ask, "Does piracy really make a difference to the music or movie industry?" In most cases people would come to the conclusion that it does little to no difference but in all reality, it makes quite a large divot in the industries. According to Siwek, American workers suffer from the millions that download music illegally. Around 71,000 jobs and over two billion dollars in wages have been lost due to piracy in the music industry(I). With this in play, piracy really hurts the music industry. Some people will most likely think that downloading one song or one unpopular movie will not make much of a difference but it all adds up because so many people believe...
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...Academic Research and Communication Skills (ARCS) “What are the good effects of Piracy in the entertainment buisness?” Candidate Name: Sumeth Madan Candidate Number: 1156FAGD011 Session: 2012-2015 Subject: ARCS Word Count : 4538 Supervisor: Hans Kirkels Draft – Final 19th June 2013 | Abstract: Background - Piracy in the Internet is defined as the evil force that is destroying the entertainment industry. This blame has been put on since the invention of the Internet and its file sharing ability. It has recently been observed that a significant number of reasons can help in proving that piracy does have a good effect on the society. Result – Distributing the three major entertainment industries such as the music industry, gaming industry and the Movie production industry the research helps in proving the question about why is piracy good to the society. Piracy is not only the back bone of the entertainment business but is also the backbone of the internet as by doing critical analysis we find that it even protects us from the government. Conclusions - A theoretical analysis, backed up by observation and intense reading and understanding of how the Internet and the piracy works we can conclude that the piracy has had good effects on the entertainment industry. Table of Contents Abstract……………………………………………………………………… 2 ...
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...Course Project: Internet Piracy Author Note This paper was prepared for ENG-135 Course Project Abstract Internet Piracy is defined as: Downloading copyrighted material without financial compensation to the copyright holder. The purpose of this paper is to review digital piracy and to present the positive impacts and its benefit it has on businesses,publishers, and producers. Many people think that software piracy is hurting the economy, but this essay will give you reason to believe that this can open up new doors and allow everyone to enjoy content and information that would not have been so easily accessible in the past. Just because some may not make as much profit from this form of obtaining content, others will gain off of it. Piracy is one of the most frequently committed crimes in the world and many people do not even realize it. Although, if you were to look at it in a different perspective, it may not seem like a crime at all. Today 70 percent of online users don’t see illegal downloading as a form of “theft”(Wayne Scholes,2014). Most successful artists or producers make tens of millions of dollars every year. How much is piracy really hurting people? If it were truly hurting anyone then these people would not live in houses larger than the white house. Organizations like the MPAA or The Motion Picture Association of America is an association that represents six major Hollywood studios. These organizations often...
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...Kimberly Cunningham BA – 226 Mid – Term Paper January 31, 2012 SOPA/PIPA “Stop Online Piracy Act”/“Protect Intellectual Property Act” Recently, there has been much debate regarding the Stop Online Piracy and Protect Intellectual Property acts. Both of these acts involve online copyright infringement of intellectual property. These acts are basically attempting to put in place regulations for the government to control the content of what is being “shared” over the internet. The first act that was written was the “Protect Intellectual Property Act,” (“PIPA”) which was introduced by Senator Patrick Leahy on May 12, 2011. This proposed act was to limit access to various websites operating outside of the United States which were/are engaging in copyright and intellectual property infringement. Basically, what is covered in this proposed act is the illegal infringement of copy written materials through various channels, including distribution via the internet. This act is proposing that internet service providers have a duty to protect copy written materials by making such internet sites unavailable to the average user by not posting links to questionable sites. In addition, search engines, under this act, would be required to disable access to any internet sites engaging in questionable activities and not provide a hypertext to these internet sites. The second act, (often referred to as the “Sister Act” of “PIPA”), was introduced by Republican House Member Lamar Smith...
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