Chapter 13 Summary:
Anonymity on the internet has its ups and downs. A benefit is that you can raise awareness of social issues without the risking your own safety. A negative side to anonymity is the disconnect it causes between people, and the potential cause for problems that comes with talking to someone that you may not know.
Privacy has also become a huge issue with using the internet. Everything you have ever said in a chat room or emailed to a professor is stored in a database somewhere and can be accessed by authorities if needed, or by hackers if they should so desire to want that information. Web sites are also able to collect your personal information and sell it off to other companies for profit. Many people do not understand why companies are able to sell their information, but most of the time it is spelled out in the terms of agreement when you use a web site, and most always nobody reads the those terms and are oblivious to the fact that their information is being sold. Another issue of privacy is that companies can access their employees personal email files, and depending on what they have been emailing or visiting for internet sites can be fired from their jobs.
Another issue with internet usage today is the protection of copyrighted material. This was a huge problem back in 1999 and 2000 when Napster hit the scene and millions of people started downloading songs for free. The recording industry fought hard to stop Napster from allowing people to share and download music, and when taken to court Napster essentially went out of business. This led to Lawrence Lessig's model that recognizes four constraints that regulate behavior in cyberspace. The law, norms, the market, and software architecture all play a role in what we can and cannot do on the internet.
Questions:
1. Do you agree with the libertarian view of cyberspace or the communitarian view? Why?
2. Should companies be able to look into your private email account without your consent? And if they find something they do not like should they be able to fire you for "unacceptable" content?
