Ownership & the Web: From Napster to Net Neutrality

To start off with a little background, your fellow students in another section of LIB102 identified the following issues:

Network Neutrality
Network (or Net) Neutrality is the concept that
Internet Service Providers will not interfere with or restrict, among other
things, access to content on the internet. Critics of this concept argue
that in the interest of sustainability and growth on the Web, ISPs should be
granted discretionary power over website accessibility. This would
essentially make ISPs the gatekeepers of information on the Web. The aim
is to encourage innovation and quality of service by shaping the flow of
internet traffic in such a way that favors those websites that deliver these
measures. However, this "non-neutrality" could also open the door
for monetary compensation to ISPs in exchange for favorable treatment. The
resulting disparity would undermine the very purpose of non-neutrality, with
smaller, more inventive websites falling to larger, better-funded, less
pioneering websites.

Copyright Infringement
A major issue with ownership on the web is copyright infringement. This was
a huge problem when sites such as Napster
first started showing up on the web. It was argued by Napster that because
the files were being shared from an individual’s own computer and Napster was
just facilitating the exchange, no laws were being broken. Eventually,
Napster became the defendant in a lawsuit brought on by Metallica when an
unreleased version of “I Disappear” made it’s way onto the network and from
there to radio stations. Napster lost the suit and eventually filed for
bankruptcy. The site has changed ownership and is no longer a free site.
Napster was bought out by software company Roxio and now sells music
legally. However, many sites still exist for music file sharing such as
LimeWire or Aries.


Copyright Infringement
Cases
Something called, "Bittorrents" has taken the world
by storm, in which people download files from the internet in a P2P community,
much like places like LimeWire, Bearshare, Etc. However, they are different in
the aspect that Limewire is from searching and browsing through files, finding
the right file, and downloading it. Bittorrent is filespecific in the sense that
somebody makes a tracker for a specific file or files (their can be a compressed
zip including much more than one file) and a person that is downloading it
causes better bandwidth for the next person downloading. They also can speed it
up by having a tracker on the same file. However, the MPAA has announced a
tremendous escalation in their fight against online piracy - this time targeting
BitTorrent, eDonkey2000 and Newsgroup NZB indexing sites.



Where will we go in the United States with publishing information and music on the web? Please also feel free to identify other issues that you think are important on this topic.

How Does Technology Fit into College Life?

As a college student, how do you feel about the use of technology?

Let me pose a few questions to get started: Are you required to use technology for your classes? Does technology enhance your learning experience? How does technology fit into the social interactions with your classmates?

One of my students last semester said, "One of the largest draws to going to college is the experience. The dorm life, the classes, the interaction. If all college courses were online, that experience would not exist. Similarly, if college life became computerized, what would be next? Jobs, other learning/school experiences...doctor appointments (if biology classes that needs labs can do it, why not?)...what's next. We can already order clothes and other necessary items online. Would it get to the point that we would never need to go outside? We'd either have special individuals who deliver our packages, or we'd just advance the computerized systems and technology so that everything would be made by machines/robots? I know it sounds a little extreme, but the question is, where does it stop and where are we headed?"

What do you think ? . . .

Practice Blog Posting in Class

Last semester in class, a number of students were a little confused when they did their first blog posting.

So. . . . This time we'll all do a practice post during class today. (I will post the real techology blog topic early this evening.)

I was trying to think of a topic of interest that would apply to everyone. How about all the construction on campus this fall?

What do you think of all the construction on campus this semester? How has the construction affected you or not? Do you have any concerns for your safety; i.e. anything you've seen that you consider to be unsafe?

What This Blog is About

This blog will be about the two topics that you selected as your first and second choices for wiki/blog topics about technology and society.

The choice for the first topic is College Life and Technology. Rules of the game: Blogger.com has a set of expected behaviors for its bloggers and those who participate in the blog (that's you!).
Here's a link to that page.

Please let me know if you notice something isn't working.