Sami Atari-Blog 1

I’ve really enjoyed the topics we’ve gone over up to this point in the class. The readings and discussions have gotten me to think from a different point of view, and I have enjoyed reading all the opinions that differ from mine. It is also very appealing to me because I am a MIS major, and I feel that these topics will arise at some point in situations within my career.

The topic I’ve found most interesting is the issue of pirating movies and music. This is a topic that raises many eyebrows because you would think that there are is a simple answer: you’re stealing so you’re in the wrong! But this isn’t always the case. Have I pirated movies? I plead the fifth on that one, but I have witnessed debates in my classes, such as the ecommerce class I took, where students justify their pirating of a CD with the argument that they didn’t want to pay money to find out if they would like it. I understand their position, but I would argue that you can read reviews and listen to previews of songs to help make up your mind. There some people on the discussion boards that said they have never pirated anything in their lives because they believe it is stealing. I had difficulty believing that, and I’d like to ask them, if I were to give them a copy of a CD I had, would they keep it?

Being a MIS major, I believe I’m very well versed in how the internet works and how it came to be. What really got my attention were Paul Garrin’s videos. More specifically, when he discusses the myths of the internet, he says, “the internet is public, has no borders, and has no center.” One item he discussed that I was already aware of was the fact that the internet is not as public as people think, since private companies own the bandwidth. I guess this is why the internet actually has borders, like Garrin said. We think we can talk to anyone we want, but these companies can prevent us if they wanted to. He also talks about how these companies have strong ties to the government, which I thought was interesting because I always knew that government played some roles in the power of the internet, but not in the way Garrin spoke of.

After some of the readings, mainly chapter 3 of Ess, I feel that I have done some things that weren’t ethical. For instance, when I was younger I was very involved in downloading emulators and ROMs. Emulators are basically a virtual version of a videogame platform (Snes9x was the Super Nintendo emulator for example), and ROMs are basically the files that contain the video games I wanted to play on my emulator. Many ROM websites have a federal warning that says if you own the hard copy of the game, then it is legal to download that ROM. However, I wasn’t a fan of that rule, so I downloaded as many games as I wanted. At the time, I didn’t think it was a big deal because these games really aren’t sold anymore, except old used copies online. I didn’t think what I was doing was unethical. I guess according to Ess, it was.

I find myself thinking a little bit more about the ethical implications of my actions. I feel that I have done things that aren’t ethical in American culture, such as pirating software and movies, that I wouldn’t question if I lived in the Middle East, due to the fact that there are no copyright rules there.