Democracy In The Network Age Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Democracy In The Network Age - Term Paper Example Some users will download it â€Å"crack† it and have access to premium features. While they undoubtedly know this is illegal they are also aware it is almost impossible to be prosecuted due to the anonymity the internet allows. This is not to mention the many that download such content and share it. They are also part to the crime but, unfortunately, not very many users are cognizant of the extent to which they should use some of the software and file sharing facilities. Moreover, while there exist laws against pirating of content; for example, peer to peer violations attract fines of up to 500,000 dollars; a survey showed that 93 percent of the respondents illegally download material nevertheless (Liberacki). The music and movie industries are some of the casualties of the lack of restrictive policies and /or enforcing of the same. With the availability of high speed digital duplication software and hardware, pirated content can be reproduced with no degradation from the auth entic material (Intellectual Property Rights). Most of this occurs through file sharing or peer to peer networks, here, the content is availed free of charge. Companies like YouTube are forced to remove some of the content uploaded by users due to copyright issues, for instance a just as someone may buy an original copy of a newly released movie and upload it on YouTube. While YouTube will remove this, there are hundreds of websites that specialize in selling or giving way this content. Publishers and software manufactures stood to make a killing from the online market through selling of premium software and EBooks. Nevertheless, due to the technology of file sharing, when someone downloads any premium content, they can give it out or resell it at will, notwithstanding copyright issues. Currently, the existing policies and legislation are not capable of dealing with these issues because they latter are changing so fast and new concepts developed every day leaving a lot of grey areas , which cyber criminals exploit to the maximum. Former French president Nicholas Zarkozy is on record having said that governments are duty bound to set rules limiting misusing of the internet more so in issue of privacy and piracy. Besides, even when policies do exist inside the USA the same may be unheard of or lax in other countries where the software may end up. As such, new and updated policies need to be formulated, and they should be explicit pertaining to the crimes, furthermore; governments should have the ability to enforce this legislation. Democracy, while benefiting from the internet and social networking especially from an action has also suffered major blows. Take for instance the situations in Egypt and Syria. The internet was used bring about democracy through a peoples’ revolution mostly planned online through social networks. While recognizing the crucial role played by social networks in this, the danger therein must also be considered. In Liberia, the sam e was done, but there was a plethora of emerging issues including that it may have been politically instigated by western powers that had interests in the countries resources. Thousands died in the ensuing protests, and what started as online activism lead to civil war. Thus, while justifying the need to give people a chance for self expression online. It is incumbent of us to examine the extent to which the internet can be used in the quest to obtain democracy without disregarding the