Should illegal downloading be punished?

Should people who illegally download or copy music, movies, games, etc. be punished? That has been a controversial subject and is still debatable. Downloading or copying music, games software should not be punishable. Among the debate there has been no proven loss of money to bands, creators, or producers. Copying information is just borrowing. Copying doesn't mean the same thing as stealing. Stealing is taking the item so that the owner is unable to use it. The original item has not been removed or taken just duplicated. The music, games and applications are actually receiving more exposure being shared among friends. It gives people who would not have access to the item the chance to learn about it and then to pass it on to someone else. The companies who reproduce the items to actually ship to stores to sell are still making a profit because of the markup on the item to make money. There are always opinions of what is legal and illegal as well as what is punishable or not. My opinion is that for all of these reasons, illegal downloading should not be punishable.






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Article courtesy of http://www.debate.org/opinions/should-people-be-punished-if-they-download-music-and-movies-illegally

You Can't Take it Back

Have you ever posted anything on the internet that should never have been posted?  There was probably a time when you were angry or excited and wanted to tell the world. Maybe you sent some risky pictures to your girlfriend only to realize that wasn't such a good idea as you are breaking up? Be careful what you say and what you send over the internet. It may look like you are able to delete the items from the present application. But there is a hard drive somewhere that is still able to pull those things up for many years to come. Never put anything on the internet that you would mind your boss, mother or future wife to see. Your future employer is able to look at facebook to determine if you are a good candidate for the job you are interviewing for. Your mother is your friend on facebook and she sees every status and comment you make. Your future wife may not understand that you were only 17 when you sent those pictures to your old girlfriend. Just think twice before sending those questionable things out for the public to see.










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Banking- an Unsafe Business

 

 According to an article from CNN Money, 100 banks were recently hacked. The hackers used spyware to mimic the transfers and transactions that employees would normally make. Even ATM's were manipulated to spit out money. There was someone waiting by the ATM to obtain the money as it was being released. This worries me because I make a weekly deposit of my paycheck into my bank. There is even a sign up that says my money is protected by the federal government up to a certain amount of money. Hackers have become smart with computers and technology that even the smartest and strongest firewalls and anti-spyware are able to be fooled. I wonder if I should hide my money under my mattress or in the freezer to ensure it is protected?  

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Article courtesy of http://money.cnn.com/2015/02/15/technology/security/kaspersky-bank-hacking/index.html?iid=H_T_News

Unsafe Passwords

 In today's technical society we use passwords on a daily basis. We sign in with a different password to our computer log-on, our email, sites, and even our computer literacy class. According to finance markets, most people have at least 22 different password protected accounts. This makes it impossible to remember every password. This is why most people only use one password for everythng. Along with only choosing to use one password, it is normally a very common password that can be easily hacked. According to this article, banking is most dangerous area to use common passwords. The best idea for a password should come from a line of a song. It would include the first letter of each word and have some numbers which would satisfy most site requirements for password selection. Knowing this information will certainly affect my future password selection.





Article- courtesy of http://www.financemarkets.co.uk/2012/12/17/financial-data-at-risk-from-unsafe-passwords/

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