Amira Bell

From Hst250
Jump to: navigation, search

Wiki Article #2: Hacking, Surveillance, and The Web

Anonymous, SOPA, and PIPA (Protect IP) are:

Anonymous is a very popular group who originated in 2003 on the 'imageboard 4chan' of individuals who believe they are governed by no law. They are a loosely associated international network, they describe themselves as “an internet gathering” with “a very loose and decentralized command structure that operates on ideas rather than directives. The group became known for a series of well published publicity stunts and distributed denial-of-service attacks on government, religious, and corporate websites. An example attack that anonymous did was in January of 2009 attacking a California teen by the name of McKay Hatch who ran a website against profanity.

PIPA (Protect IP) is short for Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property. Which was a proposed law with the stated goal of giving the US government and copyright holder’s additional tools to curb access to “rogue websites dedicated to the sale of infringing or counterfeit goods”, especially those registered outside the U.S. SOPA is short for Stop Online Piracy Act. SOPA makes it legal for copyright holders to receive court orders against pirating websites. Jason mentions that SOPA is what you call a “Domestic IP address” examples are:”.com, and .us”. While Protect IP is not a domain website and those examples are: “.ly and .cr”. The main primary goal of these bills are to put a stop to internet piracy by censoring links that has infringing content.

How do groups of hackers, like Anonymous, relate to movements to protect online privacy?

In reality the internet is used for the general public nationwide as an open stream flow for information to be posted and for people to communicate with each other online. It also allows people to input information for the general public while also allowing people to add to others work. Using our class as an example we are allowed to construct our own Wikipedia pages while also being allowed to comment on one another’s post. Groups like anonymous is one of the many fighting for the right of internet privacy. Internet content is often restricted due to miscellaneous reasons and the group anonymous gets upset when this occurs. Quinn Norton discussed the year when the group anonymous took on the cops, and when Tunisian government placed restrictions on the internet, anonymous launched the distrusted denial-of-service attack on government websites as they leaked information about events happening in Tunisia. They shared information with the people in Tunisian and gave them information on how to help with the outbreak. Once anonymous plans started to be successful they gained a fan base and was look at like a “God”. Anonymous absolutely doesn’t support the prevention to protecting online privacy they feel that it should be what it is an open communication tool.



Edward Snowden

The readings illuminate the events surrounding Snowden because basically shared that the US government was spying on its community through the internet and telephones with their knowledge. He received this information from the U.S National Security Agency to numerous of journalists. He had collected classified confidential documents regarding the NSA”s ways of domestic surveillance practices. Snowden had access to highly classified information that he felt needed to be shared with the public and he did not feel he did anything wrong because he did not directly hurt anyone. Although being a cost to the US and almost doing prison time Snowden made it his duty to pass along information that informed the public what the internet was precisely being used for. People seen him as a hero while others seen him as a huge criminal. I believe Snowden acted in a way just like Anonymous did with sharing confidential information to the public about upcoming governmental actions.


Work Cited

Anonymous (group). Wikipedia. Wikimeida Foundation. (n.d) Web Retrieved July 2, 2015

Edward Snowden- Wikipedia, the free encylopedia. (n.d). Web. Retrieved July 2, 2015

Harvey, J (2012 January 17. blog.reddit:whats new on reddit: a technical examination of SOPA and PROTECT IP

Norton, Quinn. "2011: The Year Anonymous Took cops, Dictators and Existential Dread." Wired. N.p 11 January 2012. Web July 2,2015


History Of SimCity’’'

Sim City developed by Will Wright is an open ended city-building computer and console video game series. He’s wonderful idea to create Sim City was inspired by a feature of the game Raid on Bungeling Bay which allowed Mr. Wright to create his own maps during development. With his passion in creating maps he created Sim City which was published in 1989, which spawned several different editions sold all over the world. Sim City was so successful it sparked the release of many other spin off “Sim” titles, including 2000’s The Sims which happen to be the best-selling computer game. It was so popular because the player is given the task of founding and developing a city of their own, while also keeping the people in the city pleased with a given stable budget. SimCity was also compared to the game “Civ” throughout the article saying the games had similar ideological interpretation.


Summary Of Article’’’

The topic of the article was about how sim city had different effects on others. From the beginning of the article computer scientist Alan Kay made a comment that the game was “pernicious black box”. Mark Sample’s main argument is not only one person’s argument but many, the author mentioned other people’s views on the game and what they thought about cognitive effects on children. Kay even went as far as to say that the game is anti-educational saying children wouldn’t know the real object of the game. Another argument was about the banality of the game stated by Trevor he said the game quickly became boring. The author also stated that the game was a framing fiction. With monopoly being similar to SimCity in ways one of them was because the game was for landlords and capitalists but it actually showed no real critique of capitalism in the game. Mark Sample also argued that people should play the game and expose and debate its assumptions.

Social ,Cultural, and Political Aspect ’’’

The social and cultural aspect was that the more police stations you build could be more effective on the crime rate of your community. The downside to not having enough police around is that the crime rate would go up. On the political side of things your role in the game is to be the mayor which leaves you with the control on how the city will function. Having my own personal experience with the Sim’s collection the only time race is brought into the game is with its other installments which featured you being a character or even a family. This gave you the ability to building raise or lower the tax rate build transportation systems ect.

Comparing The Comments/Personal Experience’’’

I enjoyed reading the comments they proved to have some different answers or disagreement’s the comments were more in favor that the game was similar to monopoly. I agree with the game being similar to monopoly because its approach on running a city and managing money and property. With SimCity being a computer game and monopoly being a board game this differs the odds of your games outcomes. One other comment compared the game to roller coaster tycoon which is similar but it is about an amusement parks rollercoaster and different ways you can design it to make it more fun for other to ride. Playing the Sims series I can actually say myself that the games are pretty good when they are about you controlling your own life and who you want in your life or not. I actually played Sims pets which was about you choosing to be an animal and basically teaching the pet to do different things while watching it grow. This game was different from any of the other Sims games but it shared the same mission. The Sims to me is about creating something from nothing and managing it and making it better. The game required so much time that it almost felt as if you built a character to live a life that you probably would want to live or just played the game for the control over an avatar.


Work Cited’’’

MacDougall, Rob. “Seeing Like Sim City.” Play the past Rss. N.p., Jan 2011. Web 11 June 2015. Sim City” Wikipedia Web. 11 June 2015