Kevin Hilton

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Wiki # 2Internet Security: New Rules for new Worlds (Wide Web)

Today we live in a world that is basically centered around information gathered from the internet. While in most cases this is considered a benefit to society, it is also stirring up great controversy within the copyright and security world. There have been numerous acts proposed in order to increase security(domestically and internationally) around the well being of Americans as well as copyright infringement. There are even groups ( like Anonymous) that have been flooding in to protest these propositions. With a little more conversation, who knows where the tables may turn.

SOPA and PIPA

The “Stop Online Piracy Act” was issued in 2011 within the House of Representatives to try and expand the law enforcement's resources pertaining to prosecution in people who are violating US copyright infringement laws. (Wikipedia) The operator of the site would be prosecuted in a court of law if it was found that they were '"committing or facilitating the commission[my emphasis] of criminal violations punishable under section 2318, 2319, 2319A, 2319B, or 2320, or chapter 90, of title 18, United States Code." Those sections primarily deal with copyright infringement and counterfeit products.' If the site is out of a foreign address (for example redd.it) but is directed from the U.S, the Attorney General may still take action. (Harvey, Jason) “The law would expand existing criminal laws to include unauthorized streaming of copyrighted content, imposing a maximum penalty of five years in prison.”(Wikepedia)Essentially, PIPA has the same implications, but was an act issued through the Senate in the same year. PROTECT IP stands for Protecting Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act. With a few (very) minor discrepancies , these bills were designed for the same reasons. If a website was found guilty of meeting all necessary criteria, they would be subject to:

Require US sites and search engines to remove all links to the foreign site Require U.S. Advertising services to no longer serve ads linking to the site, or display ads (Eg. AdSense) on the foreign site Require U.S. Payment networks to cease any transactions between foreign site and U.S. Customers. Require U.S. Service providers to block customer accress to foreign site (DNS blacklisting)

Anonymous

Anonymous is a group of “hacktivists” that has no cetralized control. There is no face, no leader(s), no base of command, no trace left behind. This makes it very hard for any sector of any government to follow. They actually don't even have a philosophy, and “work off of ideas “rather than directives”. The main prupose of the group is supposed to protect the people as a whole, and targets any sort of outside, controlling influence that may harm society. They have been involved in such protests as the “Occupy” movement that was attacking Wall Street and the banks that run this country. They were involved in a massive shut down of Sony's web servers because of (what they considered) the wrongful prosecution of civilians that had been legally altering games they already owned, after a recent patch had been developed to stop it. There are other groups out there that are trying to protect citizens rights in regard to information flow. According to a member of the Sweden Pirate Party, “If you look at the advantages of file sharing, every citizen gets all the knowledge and culture of the world at his fingertips. Each citizen is enriched in a way not seen since the advent of public libraries 150 years ago.”(GCBC). These groups are all trying to protect us as citizens to the world in front of us, without prosecution.

Edward Snowden

Speaking of access to information, how much is too much? Recently, a man named Edward Snowden has dug quite the whole for himself. He was a former technical contractor for the NSA as well as CIA employee who leaked top-secret information about the US and Britains plans for a mass surveillance system. Snowden said the leaks were an effort to “inform the public as to which is done in their name and which is done against them.” Currently, Snowden is stuck in Moscow awaiting word of whether or not Ecuador will grant him asylum. President Obama remains very concerned about what information Snowden may still have to leak to the public.

CISPA

Much of what Snowden is leaking related to the recent CISPA (Cyber Intelligence and Sharing Protection Act) law proposed and now floating on the Senate floor. Unlike SOPA, CISPA was meant to guard against “cyber threats” that could be comprimising national security. It would esesntially be used to collect data from users of accepting organizations. Companies like Facebook, Google, and Bing would have the discetion to record whatver and whenever they wanted to. The CISPA has met many opposers throughout the internet world, with a call from former owner of redd.it to abolish the act. The Senate has not pushed the bill too hard with a fear that the Obama administration will veto the idea.


Im excited to see what happens over the next few years concerning internet security. I want to live in a world where everyhitng is available, everyhting free. But I dont think that can happen. We need to create rules that live within our social bounds and govern the cyber world as if it was reality.






Works Cited

xHavey, Jason (2012) A technical examination of SOPA and PROTECT IP (read) Norton, Quinn (2012) 2011: The Year Anonymous Took On Cops, Dictators and Existential Dread (read) Zetter, Kim (2013) Reddit Cofounder Calls on Google’s Larry Page to Oppose CISPA (read) Sottek, T.C. (2013) The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act: CISPA explained (read) -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PROTECT_IP_Act -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Online_Piracy_Act http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57591281/obama-concerned-edward-snowden-could-leak-more/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anonymous_(group)

Everquest: The MOST MMO of All Time

Massively Multiplayer Online games began to spring up in the 90's, and it wasn't until Everquest came around that the “game” was truly changed. Basically all MUD (Multi-User Dungeon) games at the time were text, and 2-D based. “Everquest is considered a 3D evolution” of these games. While just a concept developed by John Smedly in 1996, Everquest was released 3 years later by Sony's “989 Studios”. Essentially this was a subscription fantasy game that allowed one to choose from 16 characters, and explore the Everquest world with their friends. During exploration, one would discover treasures and fight monsters, inevitably gaining experience points and unlocking other accessories within the game. Up until 2012, players had to pay a $15.00/per month fee to play the game (which at one time had a reported 5 million subscribers). To understand how big Everquest is, it's good to know that 17 expansions of the game are available, offering new worlds, weapons and excitement. The fee has now ben dropped, and Everquest still has a world of excitement to offer.


Too Big to be True?

In Emily Bemenbeck's article, Past-Time: Re-Encountering Everquest, she takes a look at how big “big” can get before people want to go back to the simpler ways of “life”. As stated before, the Everquest franchise has now offered players 17 expansions over the last 14 years, causing a world that may just be too big for comfort. While the veteran players would generally hang out in select “cities”, much of the landscape is desolate wasteland, a ghost town where players once had so much fun and excitement. Sony decided that Everquest veterans deserved to re-hash old memories. In February of 2011, they created a “Progressive Server” that essentially froze “the game state at a moment in the past before any expansions were released”. This allows a veteran player to relive the original explorations as if they were new again, and (if voted up) relive each expansion as they are slowly unlocked. This was an enormous success. So big, that they had to open a new server to keep up with traffic. Bemencbeck proposes that, though someone is re-experiencing all of these maps, monsters, and treasures, they are not robbed of their innocence. Since they are in fact an older, wiser, human being, they will experience each of those obstacles in a new light. “They are reading the text with new eyes, running the paths with new expectations. Everything is being done for the first time”.

-A Comment by “BRIANNEM” showed his appreciation for Bemenbeck's point, offering the example of his re-read of the book The Hobbit. “Rereading opened worlds of meaning and symbolism I never saw at that age. Context can redefine the meaning you gauge from an experience much like playing childhood games”.


Sociocultural Importance

I believe this article relates to the public on a sociocultural level because we've all felt the need to “re-live” old memories. We remember the happiness they gave us and try to re-hash those great times. I remember re-watching “Heavyweights”, one of my favorite childhood movies, when I was 17. The symbolism! The underlying themes! The things I never caught as a kid, because I wasn't cultured enough. I think a lot of the time Disney understood that parents were watching, and would throw in some more matured life lessons/themes. When throwing on an old Nintendo game, I can blister past obstacles and puzzles that would've taken me a lot longer as the 6 year old who originally played them.

My take

The first time I heard the name Everquest was in 6th grade. A few of my friends had been talking about playing it, but I had no interest ($15 bucks a month to play a video game? COME ON!) Meanwhile, I was at home playing an (what I believe to be the best) MMO released around the same time as Everquest, called “Diablo II”. It was a sequel to the classic “Diablo” from a few years prior. With the same general concept as Everquest, It had a third-person view as opposed to a first-person, and the expansions only reached 2. Last year, Diablo III was released, something I had been waiting 12 long years to play. It just wasn't the same. There was no spark in the adventure I had once flaunted about in the past. It was (as explained of later Everquest expansions) a little too easy. After playing the game for a couple of weeks I, too began reminiscing of the old days, wanting desperately to play “Diablo II” again. I gave up on the idea, but I think after reading this article I'm gonna pull out the dusty ol' disk and throw it in. Blizzard (the company who created Diablo) still has servers up for the oldest of veterans.

Works Cited

1. Everquest Wikipedia Page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EverQuest#Subscription_history 2. Past Time: Re-Encountering Everquest, Emily Bemenbeck, 02/16/2011 http://www.playthepast.org/?p=818