Global Impact of the Internet (Blown to Bits ch. 2, 6, 7, 8)

     The Internet has gone through many stages of evolution since its creation in the 60s. From being a network only accessible to select universities to being accessible from many electronic devices and used by billions the Internet has become larger than it has ever before. The increase of the capabilities of the Internet and the growth in users has left an impact on the world. With this impact has come many implications on things such as personal information, security/surveillance, intellectual property, and the law. These implications, for better or the worse, affect our everyday lives and and will continue to do so in an every growing society equipped with technology.

     In the world of the Internet personal information is not guaranteed to be safe or private. The collection of information on a single person and its spread/use is evermore prevalent in the modern age of the Internet; this can be both good and bad. The ease of retrieving and spreading information has proven great in catching criminals. Chapter 2 gives an example of a series of crimes committed by a 60 year old man in December 2007. The man would inappropriately act around women on the Boston transit system and assault them as well. One of the victims took a photo of the man and within hours of it going online it had spread on was even on many local news stations. The man was arrested in a day. Here, the Internet made it possible to serve justice to the criminal because personal information, pertaining to the man's looks, was able to be spread like wildfire, making it easy to find and capture him. However, it is important to question what other uses retrieval and spread of personal information could have. Chapter 2 talks about how RFIDs improve record keeping by making it easier to track certain things. It is easy to use as it requires no power source and anything stored on it can be read by receiving radio waves from it, not even having to have it visible. This has been used by stores to keep track of inventory but it has also been used to track a single customer's buying habits and to track cows and pets. While the first is beneficial to the customer and can improve their service the latter should be a bit concerning. The ability to track things could very well be used to do more sinister things, such as tracking innocent individuals, and not having it visible can be convenient for retrieving information but also for making sure someone being tracked doesn't find out. While good can be done with being able to easily get information and/or spread it there can also be harm done which people should be aware of since personal information is not gaurenteed protection.

     The modern age of the Internet has made piracy easier and more prevalent. Music has been something that has been pirated throughout the decades using various methods. Copies of a sold used to be sold physically as records, tapes, and CDs. Pirating music would mean copying data from a master disc and transferring it to other disks. During this process data would become corrupted or lost and pirated versions would be worse than official ones. With the digital age, however, data can be transferred with little to no corruption or loss which was bad news to the music industry when people started getting their music digitally and would get away with piracy. In the face of losing money to piracy companies get the law involved and it can result in a loss of rights on the Internet. We saw this in the 90s with the NET Act mentioned in chapter 6. In 1993 it was found that a computer at MIT was setup to be a relay point where people around the Internet could upload and download software. The software was paid and when the student responsible for this was found he was taken to court. The prosecution accused the student of illegally transmitting stolen property across state lines but the judge ruled in the student's favor, saying the student was only transmitting bootlegs (copies of software) and nothing was really stolen. In response, Congress passed the NET Act in 1997 which made it illegal to copy even a single piece of software at home even if it isn't intended for commercial use. This limited the rights of people on the Internet since even illegally copying one piece of software could get you fined or imprisoned. The Internet brought with it widespread piracy but this hurts all in the end since in response the companies losing money everyone on the Internet, regardless of if they are committing crimes or not, will have some rights taken away.
     In addition to piracy other crimes have become prevalent on the Internet, such as preying on minors. When instances of these crimes occur on the Internet it comes into question how we can protect users from malicious and harmful cyber crimes. In the case of Katherine Lester in chapter 7  lawmakers tried to protect Internet users but eventually failed. Katherine Lester was a young Michigander who was the victim of a child predator. In 2006 she ran away with a Middle Eastern man but was eventually returned to her parents. In response lawmakers tried to pass the DOPA (Delete Online Predators Act) which would require public schools and institutions to prevent children from using social networking websites without supervision. While Representatives in Congress did express the desire to prevent trafficking the bill seemed too limiting on what students could access. Encyclopedia websites where content is shared would be harder to access, sites students need for academics. The bill was edited but failed anyways. The failure of the bill demonstrates how there is a balance between freedom and security when it comes to regulating the Internet. For the safety of the users freedoms must be sacrificed and vice versa. This is why regulating the Internet has always been a problem; we can even see this in the example from chapter 6. In order to protect intellectual property,  rights of the user on the Internet had to be sacrificed. The reverse is seen in this chapter, in order to preserve the freedoms of the Internet the user must face some risks with a lack of protection. When it comes to Internet laws the balance of freedom and safety must always be considered and whether a sacrifice is worth the cost must be evaluated.
     With wireless technology becoming mainstream censorship of media can be bypassed. This is mainly to do with the censorship of expletives on traditional means of media such as radio and TV. According to laws set by the FCC use of indecent language could get a company fined or have their licence revoked. In chapter 8 this caused a stir when George W. Bush used the s word while talking about world affairs with British PM Tony Blair. According to rules TV and radio outlets needed to censor the expletive if they didn't want to risk any legal trouble but those with Internet could listen to the uncensored audio since the FCC didn't have much power in terms of this. Being able to bypass restrictions kept on traditional means of media has led to information being more free and unfiltered being available on the Internet. This has been great for those who don't like the government regulating what they can and can't consume and for those who want the full picture of news that may have been altered due to laws.
     In conclusion, the Internet has made a large impact on our way of life. The Internet has made us a less private society with good and bad implications. With the Internet has come cyber crime which has gotten the government involved with dealing with cyber crime. These result in laws that could be damaging to freedoms of the user but good for protection and security. The Internet has become a place to get unfiltered information. From traditional means of media information is censored since traditional means have been heavily regulated. The Internet doesn't posses this and allows us to get a full picture of things. The impacts of the Internet are good and bad but it has made us an overall more connected and technology influenced society.