Lecture 8 - Being a Digital Citizen (Censorship and Filesharing)

Today we are looking at Internet Censor and File Sharing. A big part of this is about politics.
politics - power relationship between people. Personal Politics is about the role we play as citizens as well as our our rights and responsibilities. Hackers are people who explore what is possible with computers. As citizens we have a right to network (Internet etc.)

Internet Censorship – plans in western countries to censor internet (Sweden, UK, Iran, China, Myanmar, etc). Govt choosing what citizens can look at. Sweden and UK censorship is optional – can choose for your ISP to turn it on. In Sweden and UK there is a three strikes rule – says if we catch you downloading illegal content 3 times, we will cut off your internet. In 2007, Howard govt. wanted to implement mandatory internet filtering but lost election. Then Senator Stephen Conroy (Labour) wanted to introduced IF (Internet Filtering) again. What right does govt. have to censor our Internet? This is a social problem not a law enforcement problem. The censorship of the Internet will be done by the Govt. Censorship body. Prob.1) The list of refused classification sites has leaked already. Prob.2) Slows internet down. Trials have been inconclusive so far. It is also easy to circumvent these filters. Most child porn is done underground, through file sharing etc.

File Sharing
Copyright – content industry (MPAA, RIAA). Copyright - You’re right to make stuff and make money off it. Content Publisher acts on behalf of the creator eg. movie studios, record labels etc. Creative Commons is about cutting out the middle man (content publisher). Internet is a threat to Content publisher’s revenue. Napster opened the floodgate for file sharing. People who have money can afford to lobby govt. to extend copyright eg. Mickey Mouse.

Movie: Steal this film. Film makers want you to steal the film. The efforts to stop file sharing has only driven it underground. Movie studios initially tried to shut the VCR down. Intellectual property is the oil of the 21 century. This problem first began with the printing press which was seen as the unholy work of the devil by the uneducated. Printers suffered, associated with attempts to control information. Booksellers had police powers to protect books. In France govt. eventually gave up trying to stop pirates as flow of information was too strong. New media will adapt itself to suppression, often becoming stronger. Humanity imitates each other hence the need to copy (urge to communicate).

ARPA came up with concept of networking computers in order to distribute information. The decentralisation of the Internet allow it to become a giant copying machine. Trying to stop this is like trying to stop a dam from bursting. These days if something leaks out onto the Internet it is very rapidly available to everyone. War on piracy is fighting the fundamental structure of the Internet.

If battle against file sharing is lost what will happen? Will their still be a mass media? File sharing technology has allowed normal people to produce stuff (creators not just consumers) – a new economic model for society? Thanks to the Internet “gatekeepers” have been removed and no anyone can release their creativity to the world. This is more about making something rather than just making money.

The major quote I took from today was ‘When we stop sharing information we will be dead.’