The rise of the internet
in this essay I will be writing about how one man and his idea of the internet grew from a small scientists computer linking system to a massive network spreading across the entire world. I will also go on to explain how smaller groups of people use the internet to change small things in the world whether they are good or bad things.
The internet first started with Tim Berners-Lee and a simple idea to link the computers in the lab he worked in together “the ability to link computers into networks” (the rise of the internet by Mike Hanlon. http://www.gizmag.com/go/1595/) he explained in a program I watched called 'The Virtual Revolution' how when he worked in the lab they had to write down on paper each and every thing they typed up onto the computer and copy it over to another, this made him think 'hey, if I could somehow link all of these computers together it would make life much easier' this is when he started to design the web.
There is now a group that are trying to pass the bill S.O.P.A which has been made to stop online piracy and copyright once and for all, an example of this is if you recorded your sons birthday party and your playing music that you have paid for on iTunes then this can be classed as copyright because you do not have the right to play that music without the consent of the maker, this can also cause problems with the makers of the music because they do not get any advertising from that video. There are also a lot of people that show videos of games that they like to play and others like to watch but the problem is that they have not asked permission from the makers of that game if they can record it and put it up on the internet for everyone to see. S.O.P.A will stop people from doing this, which will cause a lot of problems with the viewers of YouTube and the staff that work for them. On the other hand there are websites such as pirate bay and mediafire that can be used to transfer files to other people illegally, pirate bay and U-Torrent are websites where you can download software’s and films for free with no problems, where as mediafire is a site where people can put out downloads of things like photos, game mods and videos, this website is also used to give people downloads of software’s that have been 'cracked' (serial and security key already entered) and copied, because of this being a possibility the U.S Government want to close down this site, this has already happened to megaupload which is basically the same a mediafire, “The department of justice busted the downloading site MegaUpload” (CNN).
The issue that people have with S.O.P.A is that they want to just close down sites that are useful to people for education because sometimes they can have 'unauthorised' content, take the website blogger for example it is used by people to send out information and make discussions which can help communities connect with each other because people will give ideas of the threads, the reason S.O.P.A would want to close or block a site like this is because you may get one ore two people that post something that is either offensive or copyrighted and classed as piracy. One thing should lead to a whole site being closed down, only that part of the site should be sorted out. S.O.P.A will stop these things from happening too which in my eyes is one of the only good things about it. “A very dangerous thing about this bill, the fact of the matter is a vast majority of the people debating it have no idea what it is, they have no idea how to use the internet for one thing and they have freely admitted that” (WTF is SOPA by TotalHaliBut) this is very dangerous because they don’t know what they are talking about and they would think that if it has a possibility of causing piracy then it is a problem and has to be closed down, another thing about this is that smaller majority of these people debating are against the bill and they use the internet on a daily basis.
The internet has also made life a lot easier for many people, such as students they are able to just quickly use a search engine to find out information they need insteed of having to go down to the library and find the book they need, it has also aided businesses because people can now shop online so they do not have to leave the house, this has given shops many more customers. The internet is also used to donate to charities that otherwise would have had to use someone standing outside asking for money for the charity, people can now pay over the internet. If SOPA is passed the websites that are used by these students like youtube and blogger will not be around for them to find the useful information they need.
In Conclusion the internet has help the world with its technological developments and has made a huge change to the way people live, the world would be going at a much slower pace of the internet was never invented so I agree that we must take the internet for granted because if the internet never existed then the world would not be the same today.
If SOPA gets passed then the internet would be a horrible place, a web of DNS blocking and you being tracked for uploading a video with a small amount of copyright in it.
Bibliography:
“the ability to link computers into networks”
(the rise of the internet by Mike Hanlon)
Date accessed, 2nd February 2012
“A very dangerous thing about this bill, the fact of the matter is a vast majority of the people debating it have no idea what it is, they have no idea how to use the internet for one thing and they have freely admitted that”
TotalHaliBut youtube channel
Information about S.O.P.A
Date accessed 3rd of February
“The department of justice busted the downloading site MegaUpload” (CNN).
Date accessed, 12th march 2012
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