Ethics and Law in New Media homework - Week 11

Analyse both free software and open source approach in your blog. If you prefer one, provide your arguments.

Free software is a kind of software, which can be used, copied, modified and shared for non-commercial purposes by anyone with no fees or purchases. Examples of free software that I have used are for example GIMP image editor and Openoffice text editor. These are quite quality software freely downloadable from the web. Both of them are also open source softwares.

Open source software is a software, which has an open source code for everyone to see. It enables to study the code and find out, how does the coding work in the specific software. But for that you have to be a pretty good programmer I guess. But still if you can see the code, copy and alter it as you wish, it is kind of similar to free software, with some limitations - you are not able to modify the original.

The difference between the two software versions still remains a little confusing to me. Probably it is more of a question of ethics. Free software is a kind of way of thinking while open source is waiting for some income. I would not know which software to choose, as I don't know programming and can't read code very well, therefore I could not modify the code anyway.

Ethics and Law in New Media homework - Week 10

What could the software licensing landscape look like in 2015? Write a short (blogged) predictive analysis

In five years I believe is not going to be much change in the landscape of software licensing. There are always going to be people who want to earn money and others who are in favor of free sharing. I can not imagine that there will be a program, license system or some other way of controlling the software sharing, which would satisfy everyone.

Probably the software selling companies are trying to think of new more effective ways of protecting their software or maybe more strict rules are put on the sharing of software. At the same time, the network of people using, downloading and sharing software online is growing in a pace which is very hard to follow. And of course there are still those companies or people who intentionally and collectively develop freeware for free use for everyone.

Maybe there will be more strict online rules and laws made, which establish the rights and wrongs in the Internet, Then there should be some more efficient control systems made, which have more control over what is going on in the internet. In this case the pirating is made harder and the punishments made stricter so that no one wanted to brake the laws. Then there will be companies who sell their software, maybe use vendor lock-in strategy or some perks perhaps to keep their loyal customers. There will probably still be companies which produce freeware for non-commercial purposes. The whole system would be more under control.

Write a short analysis about applicability of copying restrictions - whether you consider them useful, in which cases exceptions should be made etc.

If I think about copying restrictions and whether they are useful and for whom, I try to think from two different point of views. I am a little hypocritical about this thing.

If I think of myself as a creator or maybe an investor of a great new software, to which I have spent a lot of time or money to develop, I would like to earn something from it. It would certainly not feel good if the product I made would be used, copied and shared without me getting nothing of it. I would like there to be copying restrictions on my software.

In the other hand I am never very keen on paying for any software. I always try to get them somewhere for free or use an alternative freeware. Therefore I understand the users who are against the copying restrictions and would rather get the software for free from the internet as they are used to get everything else free from there.

Exeptions of copying restrictions should be made for educational purposes. Software which would help children to read or students to do their homework or people to get through their financial difficulties for example should be more easily retrievable. Sometimes companies should do so called 'pro bono' work in order to do good to people who are in a more vulnerable situation. Of course in this case there should be a system of control over the purposes the software is used for in order to prevent commercial use of the product.

Ethics and Law in New Media - Week 8

Study the Anglo-American and Continental European school of IP. Write a short comparative analysis to your blog (if you have clear preference for one over another, explain that, too).

While going through different studies and materials about Anglo-American and Continental European school of IP, I found one research which caught my attention. It was a paper written by Andrew F. Christie who studied the paradox of civil and common law approaches on private copying.

Continental Europe juristiction is called civil law, which means that laws are written in collection and not determined by judges (Wikipedia). These jurisdictions put great emphasis on moral rights and allow judges to interpret laws according to the specific case. Anglo-American jurisdiction is common law, which is strictly legislated and allow no room for interpretations of the laws.

Christie finds the paradox in these two jurisdictions in the approach to handling intellectual property and private copying. He says that statutory licence and levy schemes for private copying have been readily accepted in continental European countries for many decades. By contrast, such schemes have only recently begun to emerge in common law countries. Christie says that this situation is paradoxical - the statutory licence and levy scheme is common in those jurisdictions which place significant emphasis on author's moral rights and yet is rare in those countries that give primacy to the utilitarian rationale for copyright.

As a conclusion he finds that common law countries are beginning to develop their statutory licences and levy schemes of their own and it is becoming more and more common. He thinks that these are the only ways to protect intellectual property.

In my opinion it seems like the continental European approach is more controllable and clear in a sense that it allows more protection for the authors and their rights. Therefore I would probably prefer this school for IP.

Ethics and Law in New Media - Week 7

Task:
Read Chapter 3 "Against Intellectual Property" of the Brian Martin's book. Write a blog review (especially, comment on his strategies for change).

In his article "Against Intellectual Property" Brian Martin discusses the arguments against the laws, which are meant to protect intellectual property. He criticizes the concepts of patents and copyrights and finds them retarding innovation. Martin brought out an example, that companies tend to collect or buy patents on ideas connected to their fields to prevent competitors from applying their ideas. Therefore it means that when they don't develop the idea no one can. In Estonian there is a saying "Ise ei taha, teistele ka ei anna" (Doesn't want it and don't want others to have it either). Ok, maybe they do want it but are actually not as competent to get the best out of the idea or maybe it could be done better collectively.

Martin brings out some means to fight against the intellectual property. He suggests the next strategies for change:

Change thinking - intellectual property becomes undermined
Expose the costs - show how much do the companies dealing with intellectual property really own compared to the original authors
Reproduce protected works - piracy, actually similar to stealing therefore not so recommended
Openly refuse to cooperate with intellectual property - boycotting using of protected intellectual property, which in conclusion loses its value
Promote non-owned information - use and promote freeware
Develop principles to deal with credit for intellectual work - find a way to give credit to the authors of intellectual work.

I believe that there is a human characteristic, which is one of the reasons why people tend to keep their intellectual property to themselves so that only they can get credit for it. That is envy. They are not willing to let someone else take credit from their ideas and are generally suspicious. The copyright or patent gives them a kind of security, that it is something that they have come up with and if someone tries t steal it, they get punished or have to pay. Martin's last strategy of change would improve this situation. People want to be granted credit for their ideas.

Reproducing protected works and exposing costs is a kind of blind revenge, which is probably not a good solution. Boycotting protected works to some extent could be a solution but in general it seems kind of childish. I believe in motivation and positive feedback rather than punishment.

Therefore I would say that the most influential solutions are motivating authors with credit and promoting non-protected works. If people feel that they are socially more accepted if they share their ideas with others and create collectively new value for their ideas, they do not feel the need to protect their works so much. This is of course an ideal world which assumes that everyone is good, honest and smart enough not to let take an advantage of themselves.

Ethics and Law in New Media homework - Week 6

Find and blog about an illustrative case of hacktivism

I remembered some cases of hacktivism in Estonia in April 2007. It was a critical time in Estonia, because of the cultural clash between estonian and russian speaking people. In May 2007 Estonian Prime Minister had ordered a statue called Bronze Soldier to be removed from its original location. The statue played an important role in the culture of russian-speaking people in Estonia and therefore they were not satisfied with the Prime Minister's actions. The situation concluded with a public rage in the streets of Tallinn, during which many buildings were damaged, shops were robbed and people were arrested.

Soon after these events in April 2007 someone hacked in the Web site of the political party Reformierakond, which was the party the Prime Minister belonged to. The main page of the site consisted of an apology in russian by the Prime Minister. The government press department disproved the content and announced that the site had been hacked.

During the same time period several attacks were also made to other governmental Web sites, which made the IT-specialists and the public understand the vulnerability of government Web sites. The attacks continued for a few months and brought people's attention to the fact that Internet is not private and the security issues should be considered more important.

Blog about a case of social engineering

One of the most vicious cases of social engineering involve the "request for help" e-mails, which use the human factor and rely on human empathy. The scammers send e-mails or write to forums about some sad situation they or their loved ones are in and request financial help.

There are several cases about deceitful people taking advantage of others by relying on their empathy. One case I found about this kind of fraud was about a woman called Dina Leone who lied about having cancer for 3,5 years and it is believed that she got thousands of dollars from donations through Facebook. Firstly she looked up her old classmates and aquaintances from Facebook and soon told them that she was dying from stomach cancer. She posted pictures of herself with bald head, wrote emails about her treatments and suffering after surgeries and asked for financial help from her friends.

People started to question, how come she doesnt know much about her treatments and how did she go all bald overnight, rahter than loosing hair gradually, etc. Police investigation showed that she had not received any treatment.

These kind of people make the public suspicious of every person asking for help and make them seem as scammers and liers. But it is one of the most effective ways of manipulating, becaus most people emphatize for others.

Formulate some measures which can reduce the effectiveness of social engineering attempts

1. Background research - Use Google, Facebook or any other search engine and find out about the person sending the message. Especially in Estonia, as the country is so small everyone knows someone who knows that person, etc.
2. Inform the public - Each time you receive a suspicious email, let your friends and family know that they should be careful. It doesn't hurt to repeat the same message again over a period of time as people tend to forget.
3. Use junk mail filters and do not open suspicious email attatchments.

Ethics and Law in New Media homework - Week 5

Browse the Jargon File. Write a small blog entry about a term/definition which was the most intriguing for you.

Portrait of a hacker

Education
Nearly all hackers past their teens are either college-degreed or self-educated to an equivalent level. The self-taught hacker is often considered (at least by other hackers) to be better-motivated, and may be more respected, than his school-shaped counterpart. Academic areas from which people often gravitate into hackerdom include (besides the obvious computer science and electrical engineering) physics, mathematics, linguistics, and philosophy.

The thing I found interesting while browsing the Jargon File was the way hackers parceive education. The self-learners are more motivated and respected than the educated hackers, who have been shaped by the school system. This kind of attitude could actually be overtaken by many employers from other fields as well. Who says that a degree defines persons skills if today so much information and learning materials are freely available. The person educates himself and forms his own opinions rather than studies the opinions of someone else. The degree should not be a prerequisite of its own to get a job as it is almost everywhere today. Therefore I find the hackers opinion about education fair. Important is to "walk the walk not only talk the talk". :)


Write a short blogged analysis about the hacker ethic found in today's world (is it there of not, how much of it etc).

The research by Steven Mizrach showed that the hackers in the 90s had not forgotten about the original Hacker Ethics conducted in the 60s. But the old ethics were combined with new ones. He also described the new ethics in his research. I believe a form of Hacker Ethics exists to this day, because if it didn't, it would create a chaos and be a great risk for the computerized world. New ethics are probably also just modified old ethics which take into consideration the changes taken place in todays IT world.


Choose a minority group and describe how they can make use of Internet to reduce alienation and prejudice.

Today I found an ad from my mailbox, which included an invitation to the South-Korean culture days. As I clicked on the event's web site I was pleasantly surprised by the site's design and content. I could say that it influenced my opinion of South-Korea in a positive way. Which leads me to the idea that every minority nation in another country can create a positive image of itself by offering quality content in the Internet. Basically it doesn't matter if it is a web site, a social network account, videos, photos or even adequate comments under a news piece, everything creates an image. If the minority representatives represent their country in the right places and in a right way, the image of these specific people will carry on to their entire nation.

Ethics and Law in New Media - Week 4

Investigate and describe an illustrative case of digital divide in your country


The digital divide is not a big issue in Estonia in my opinion and it is decreasing constantly. According to Esonian statistics up to 75% of people aged 16-74 year use Internet in Estonia. Although there is a difference between the usage of Internet in rural areas and cities, it is nothing dramatic. Basically anyone, who wants to get information from the web, gets it.

Another matter which may cause digital divide is the unwillingness of people to learn to use the computer. People who have not spent their time on learning how the internet, digital devices and computers work feel left behind and can not keep up with the pace. I can see this situation daily at work. I work for public sector.

People working for public sector in Estonia should be able to use the digital signature, different document administration systems, administrate web content etc but many of them haven't found time or will to learn these steps. The systems are developing fast and if they don't keep up with all the updates they are soon able not to do their work. Which leads to the fact that they will be set on side and new more computer-literate people take their places. It can be seen that some of them feel threatened and find excuses why they have not been able to learn the new systems, but the fact is that there is no point of escaping anymore.


Analyse and describe Internet availability in your country. How big is the availability difference for urban and rural regions? Do you consider this a problem?

According to Estonian statistics, Internet is available in 69% of the homes in cities and 65% of the homes in rural areas. Therefore it can be said that the difference is not very dramatic and I don't consider it as a problem. People who don't have Internet at home can use it at work or public Internet places.


Compare the current situation in Estonia to the four scenarios of "Estonia 2010". Which one is the closest to the reality?

Probably the closest to reality is the scenario of "South-Finland". Estonia has become a part of Europe and wants to distance from Russia. I would not be so pessimistic about low innovation capacity though. I think that the capacity is increasing and the potential is there if only it is used in the right way.


How important do you deem the social cohesiveness (or caring) in reaching ubicomp?

I think that social cohesiveness is not essential in reaching ubicomp but it certainly fastens the process. Adopting new technologies and trends has always been a curved line like this:



The cohesiveness can essentially fasten the processes of adopting and accepting new trends which leads to ubicomp.

Ethics and Law in New Media - Week 3

Read the "Inside Echelon" by Duncan Campbell. Write a blog opinion about the present situation of the system, what it is used for and how it can influence the global community. You can also draw a couple of hypothetical scenarios (what if...).

While reading the article, a sentence which caught my attention was this:

In the information age, we need to re-learn a lesson now a century old. Despite the sophistication of 21st century technology, today's e-mails are as open to the eyes of snoopers and intruders as were the first crude radio telegraph messages. Campbell (2000)

In a situation, where the large part of peoples life goes on in the Internet, it is not comfortable to realize, that we are basically living under surveillance. Our every e-mail, blog post, web browsing history could be watched by someone. But as people are creating more and more online content, it must be getting hard for the system to grasp everything going on online. Therefore there probably aren't enough resource to keep an eye on every individuals actions in the Internet.

In the other hand, the system probably has prevented many crimes and maybe even wars. I imagine that knowing that this kind of system exists, should also discipline people, who are planning to commit some crimes or frauds. Therefore the system's existence is justified. As long as the system is in the hands of people, who's intentions are sincere and pro peace and balance, it should serve our best interests. But if somehow the system should fail or get into the hands of wrong people, a lot of damage could be done.


Write a blog description of an Internet fraud (scam) scheme.

Although there are much more complicated Internet frauds around today, I would like to talk about the most simple ones. The e-mails which I discover from my junk mail inbox couple of times a week. It says that either I have won some lottery or inherited a big sum of money and should send my personal data or even some kind of fee for them to send me the money. Of course, no heritage or lottery win actually comes from there.

I am surprised that people still fall for these schemes. Lately the scammers have learned to use the Google Translator, which makes these e-mails fun. The wrong grammar and major mistakes in sentences should convince the reader that the content can not be real.

Still a couple on times a year Estonian media together with the police or customer protection warn people about these kind of scams. It shows that there still are ignorant people out there who sincerely believe every e-mail they receive and get deceived. Maybe Internet education in schools schould help to prevent these situations from happening.


Review the scambaiting websites mentioned above. Analyse them from an ethical point of view.

The scambaiting websites are good examples of wild justice. There is an issue of ethics in every wild justice case. People who have been victims of a scam or just fed up with getting these scam e-mails have decided to step up. As the justice system is not working as effectively and fast as needed to punish the scammers, some people have taken the justice in their own hands.

I guess most people say that the scammers get what they deserve. Maybe that's why these kind of wild justice actions have not been banned for now. But where does it take us? Playing according to the same rules as criminals could make the player a criminal as well, doesn't it?

Probably the only acceptable solution would be to adjust the laws and justice systems in a way, that it would allow to punish these scammers and education systems should educate people about not falling for these kind of scams.

Ethics and Law in New Media homework - Week 1

Study Theobald's question of 'mind-quake', find a real-life example and describe it

According to Theobald the term "mindquake" is formed as a parallel to "earthquake". He used the term describing a large and catastrophic shift in thinking. Theobald figured that it is better to learn all the time be open to new things and make small shifts in thinking instead of one large life changing shift.

While thinking about a real-life cases about mindquake, the first thing that comes to mind is the mindquake soon to happen in Estonia in 2011. From January 1st Estonia is going to change its currency from Estonian kroon to Euro. This will probably cause a lot of confusion and misunderstandings. Everyone will have to start calculating their salaries and everyday costs in Euros. The mind has to settle with the transition and create new associations in order to understand the value of the new currency.
It can be said that Theobald is correct by saying that it is better to make little shifts in thinking over time. For example if people consciously already in advance calculated their costs to Euros, it would be a lot easier to make the transition. Some people probably have taken it into consideration and are dealing with Euros already, but for most of the people, it will still definitely be a mindquake.


Pick one of Handy's paradoxes, find a good real-life illustrative case and describe it

Paradox of Justice
Paradox of justice is one of the most intriguing and at the same time most delicate subjects in Estonia recently. The contradictions between the laws and the punishments are being questioned daily in Estonia. Stories about people, who have committed crimes, but are walking free, can be read from the papers every day. The justice system, which is supposed to protect the innocent and punish the guilty, cannot work as black and white as the public expects it. There are other laws, which demand strict bureaucracy and definite order of steps to be taken before the person who committed the crime will be claimed guilty. Even if the fact that he did it is obvious to everyone. Every aspect of the crime has to be correctly investigated and documented in order to be accepted as a proof against the suspect in court.

Recently there was a case where a man, under the influence of the drug GHB killed two people by running them over with his car. He was drug tested afterwards, but as the clinic that tested him did not have a correct qualification to do the drug tests, the fact that he had used drugs could not be taken into consideration while he was trialed. Therefore he had a milder punishment. In one hand, the system is correct by stating that everyone should be treated the same. The rules must exist and everyone ought to stick by them. In the other hand, everyone knew about the fact that he had taken drugs, it had been medically proven, but there was nothing anyone could do about it.


Pick one of Castells' features of network society and write a short analysis

Changes in Work and Employment
Castell describes the features of Network Society. One of the relevant features in his opinion is the change in work an employment. As most of the work could be done online, there is no need for staying in the office from nine to five. The working time, place and regulations are flexible and allow the worker to manage his time himself.

This kind of work organization is becoming more and more popular. The emergence of wireless Internet and technology give a good possibility for the flexi-workers not to own an office at all. Basically one could manage a whole company from his living room or a cafeteria around the corner.

For an employer it is cheaper to buy in a service from a person who does not have to use the facilities, therefore does not need to have a desk, chair and a parking place. He does not have to be paid monthly or receive a huge compensation when being laid off.

This kind of work organization is comfortable for people who for example are not able to leave home for the whole day. Like mothers or fathers who have to take care of their babies at home or people who live too far away from their place of work, so it is more comfortable not to commute to work daily. This also gives an opportunity for physically disabled people to find work more easily, as the transportation issue is not a problem in this case.

In the other hand, working at home needs great time management skills. A flexi-worker has to establish a strict line between work and leisure time so that one would not interfere with the other. While working at home, it is at the same time possible to do too much work and get too little rest or the opposite, do not bother to do work in such a comfortable environment. As the computer is always open and notices of new e-mails pop up all day long, it is tempting to see who is writing and what is happening. It may lead to the fact that the family and leisure time could be forgotten. It just seems that there is so much work to do. But working from home could also be distracted by children running around, the dog wanting to go for a walk or a good show from TV. Therefore it is relevant to keep the working and leisure time apart to avoid burning out.

Intro to IMKE

Today was the beginning of my journey towards the Masters degree. I am now studying in Tallinn University 2-year Masters program Interactive Media and Knowledge Environments.

The first assignment for every IMKE student is to create or use an existing personal blog, where to post the course assignments, create and discuss IMKE related topics and link useful materials. So this is my version of an IMKE student's blog.

The very first course I attended at IMKE was called Introduction and Theoretical Foundations of New Media. This course will involve making concept maps for each lecture, writing an essay and analyzing peer essays. According to the introductory lecture, the assignments seem interesting and I am looking forward to start working already.

The second course I attended today took place in Skype. It was called Ethics and Law in New Media. It is an online course but with relatively large amount of homework. It also seems to be interesting for now at least.

After the first lecture IMKE10 students got to know each other a little better. We had a great time in Lost Continent and afterwards in the computer lab during the Skype meeting.

After the first day I can say I'm looking forward to the next lectures and meetings.