Alyssa Jurcak-Anderson

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""Wiki Post Number Two""


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

SOPA, which stands for Stop Online Piracy Act was proposed on October 26,2011. Through this act the government was allowed to take action on anyone who participated in copyright infringement or online trafficking of goods. Backlash to this act consisted of many claiming amendments such as the right to freedom of speech and right to innovation, though a fought battle the maximum punishment sustained from doing so would be five years in prison.

PIPA also known as the Protect IP Act, allows for the U.S. government to terminate anyone trying to gain access to domestic or foreign sites with the main goal for sale and profit of pirated goods. An argument brought up here was again similar to that of SOPA but more so the barrier this act puts up for the profit and sales of businesses- this act was the grandfather to SOPA. Protect IP failed to pass in 2010 due to the arguments and negative feedback.

Anonymous, a foreign international piece of pirating and hacking has the ability to hack any website out there. Their main target as "bullies"are religion and government, with a backlash they do not plan nor care for. They've been the lingering pest that exposes everything we see as a society online today.

Overall, SOPA and PIPA are branches of one another and therefore we can compare and contrast between the two. Anonymous however is one of a kind. The anonymous act proves to those doing it wrong that they will be caught. The society we live in today isn't always safe and therefore these three powerhouse acts continue to try and adapt to what the cyber world is expressing. Though it may not seem like something needing to be addressed we as a country and world need to stay away from the harms of cyber incidents.

2. Online Privacy

Groups of hackers like Anonymous love laws that protect them. We see that with the growth in technology many people are robbed and hacked of their belongings without even knowing, which here we could call anonymous piracy for example. The internet is one huge bundle of information that collects and expands as days, months and years pass. The internet isn't something you can always trust either, due to what we learned about in our final week of class hackers know their business. Approaching this business with a get in an out attitude gets them far and we as the minority of the population need to stay on guard. I would believe it is safe to say that Anonymous does not support the rulings of SOPA AND PIPA, because these restrict the rights to our amendments. Overall, when we take a look at what hacking and copyrighting starts we see thy offenses can be used in both positive and negative manners and more often than not the negative side to this picture gets you in more hot water than the positive. One thing we can all remember is nothing is safe, be aware of that programs like this exist. Internet hacking as become a major issue and its one that the government is trying to settle without overstepping boundaries and having the law turned against them by anonymous for example with our amendments. Privacy online is a thing of the past.


3. Edward Snowden Edward Snowden, worked for the CIA and released government files addressing their involvement with looking into peoples personal information. The privacy of someone is always justified by the government under the Patriot Act, which takes away the right to everyone living freely and privately. Reading the article and watching videos about this topic relayed back to everything we've summed up with this closing project. When we take a look at SOPA and PIPA the government is technically pulling away everything they offered us as citizens. Many would argue along side Edward Snowden that our society isn't in fact free. If we take a large look at what the people of Anonymous do compared to that of the government we could create a political debate. The readings from this week tie a knot behind what Snowden did by releasing the information on the U.S. along with other countries to journalist. Our main argument from these three main questions is what do we as citizens really have? Edward Snowden would agree with everyone that it isn't freedom when people are spied on without knowing. The government is in fact trying to create and propose more laws against copyright and intellectual property when that is taken from everyone daily. The differences in them all our obviously there but it is more so how we the people want to outlook on these situations. Are we in fact being played? Or are copyright and trafficking of goods just as bad as being spied on with no specific reason.



Work Cited: "Anonymous." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 30 June 2015.

"Protect IP Act." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 30 June 2015.

"Stop Online Piracy Act." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 30 June 2015.

Harvey, Jason. "A Technical Examination of SOPA and PROTECT IP." Blog.reddit. N.p., 17 Jan. 2012. Web. 30 June 2015.

Williams, Brian. "Edward Snowden Interview." NBC News. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 June 2015.



SimCity Recap

Developed in California by Will Wright and published in 1989 by Maxis, SimCity became a very popular video game. The purpose behind this game is maintaining happiness among the citizens of your city while inside your given budget. Zones are created within this city and this allows for different types of development to only occur within them. Zones are not created directly by the player but when certain criteria is met you are given this ability. The zone colors are set up with green being residential, blue being commercial and yellow industrial. The Mayor, also known as the person playing the game will have frustrating encounters but they need to handle these well for their city to stay united. SimCity when first developed was only a one player game but over the years with new adaptions has become a multiplayer game and created new criteria for each version. Maxis a small game distributor runs under what we today know as EA (electronic arts) a huge game distributor that owns rights to many games.


Article Summary

The article, "Seeing Like SimCity" written by Rob MacDougall has some very strong viewpoints and arguments. These arguments come from wether or not viewers and analyst see this game as educational. One major computer scientist MacDpugall quotes in his article is Alan Kay, who explains that despite the awards this game has won it isn't beneficial towards education. Alan Kay believes that because we assume that games like SimCity are educational- they become the opposite of that and all educational material within the game goes unseen to the younger ages playing it. Rob MacDougall argues with that of Alan Kay by saying he believes youth should be taught how to go steps further; they should be able to test these simulation games and hack them in a way that these simulation games are than educational and not just a game.

SimCity Importance

The importance of SimCity can be taken in different ways. Rob MacDougall would point out that this type of game could educate the players personally and socially. SimCity was the creator of what many "Sims" games offer to youth today. We can break down the game and see that it does have some educational points. Socially, we as the player of this game known as the "Mayor" need to control a city that doesn't consist of ourself. We indeed need to think about the being of others and acknowledge that we are in control of what happens to tons of people. Financially, we are taught a lesson in sticking within budget to up keep an entire city and build into something larger than we could imagine. Personally, we could learn from things like this depending on how each player sees the game, wether its another source of pleasure for them or a lesson to be learned. It has become culturally acceptable to be a "gammer", and wether you take that as an advantage or disadvantage is all up to the person playing the game. Often times video games are created based on history or society at that point, so SimCity is just using what a Mayor and budget entails to show a lesson to the young people sitting and enjoying the screens with these games on them. Rob MacDougall and the point about perception is why this game can be very important educationally to youth.

Debate

Reading this article I enjoyed the debates that Rob MacDougall argued. Simulation games can be educational to the youth if we play them that way. The comments section under this article did have me thinking a lot about the games I played growing up. I didn't quite understand fully the lessons that were being taught to me until reading this article and thinking back on my time as a young player. One thing that stuck out was a comment about " It only being a game", when I play games today with family or friends I get very competitive and angry when losing. These may only be sports games but they still are lessons to be learned even about you as a person. One last argument you could make from all of this is that games are based off the past, present and future so how we understand these games educationally when playing them is a big understanding of oneself as a gammer. There is always a way to learn from something it's just how you perceive that something that gets you somewhere and that is what Rob MacDougall is saying.

Work Cited

"SimCity" Wikipedia Web. 12 June 2015.

MacDougall, Rob. "Seeing Like SimCity." Play the Past. N.p., 26 Jan 2011. Web. 12 June 2015.