For those who have been following my blog I have been talking about the possible acquisition of Yahoo by Microsoft. For those who did not know Yahoo rejected Microsoft’s $44.6 Billion dollar offer. Wired Magazine posted an article investigating the reasons for Microsoft’s movement. In my opinion Microsoft is trying to stay ahead of apple and make a staple and cornerstone the technology industry. It turns out they main reason is they want to focus on advertisements. Google is known for their ad-sense video adds and is the best web browser for marketing. However, Yahoo is the most used site with an average of 140 million users a day. Last year it was estimated that $6.6 Billion was invested in advertisements on web video displays, they estimate that it will be $21.1 Billion by 2012. If Microsoft could purchase this they could have the majority of the Internet users locked in for advertisements with the use of a browser, MSN messenger, and windows live. Do you think Microsoft is making the right decision? IF so should it be legal for one company to have that much control of the Internet?
What should be accepted and what should be rejected? This is the ongoing debate in our society right now regarding the Internet. The reason is that some information is considered culturally acceptable while for others it is not. Below I have placed a video clip which gives a good description of what “Net Neutrality” is from John Stewart:
The citizens of the United States should be concerned about their freedoms. Service providers such as AT&T, Verizon, & Comcast are trying to make a monopoly on the Internet community. They want to pay Internet engines a premium for exclusive use.
Freedom of speech is the first amendment to the Constitution: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
It was written over a century ago, but no one has the right to change the values upon which we were founded. We all know that within the last decade a lot of laws have been altered or overturned.
We as a nation have the right to free speech and net neutrality has become a hot topic. The idea of Internet censorship has come to the United States due to alarming issues that are occurring across the world. For those who do not know, there are numerous countries that govern and restrict their Internet usage. Some countries are China, Australia, and Iran. Net neutrality on the other side of the world is very different due to their ideas and regulations.
CNN published a story explaining the restrictions about China. China is labeled as the biggest prison for cyber users. China has blocked numerous websites and filtered almost all the servers. Accessing a server in China is completely different than any free access server. According to CNN: “Chinese people trying to access information related to Taiwanese and Tibetan independence, the Dalai Lama, Tienanmen Square, SARS, opposition political parties, and anti-Communist movements will find themselves out of luck.” They restrict information such as the man standing in front the tanks in Tienanmen Square. It almost makes you think of the movies in which they can control the information and therefore control the history and knowledge being pumped into the population. China’s history is essentially being erased or banned. According to Al-Jazeera the Chinese government has over 37,00 Internet police who govern the Internet access and have the ability to make arrests. They even place pictures on restricted sites. (As seen below)
America is not the first place to be attacked with the idea of Internet censorship. Organizations like savetheinternet.com are fighting for our freedoms. I am not going to lie, there needs to be some form of restriction on the Internet, but what I find difficult is appointing someone or a group of people to decide what should be considered appropriate. I feel that placing a chair or committees in charge of the Internet will make our nation no different than China.
Global Integrity did a case study about Internet censorship. They explained that censoring the Internet will not do anything because if you shut one site down another hundred will turn up to replace it. We need to put more emphasis on parental control. Similar to the efforts being made in Australia, we should enable parents to give certain access to their children. We should monitor the information out there and filter out the false information before we start worrying about censoring the entire Internet. That, in my opinion, is what the gatekeepers should be worried about. What do you guys think?
We all know that as each day goes by we are one day closer to the presidential elections. In our class we have been talking about how bad the candidates are attacking one another, but thanks to the internet this year's election has definitely taken it to another level. Wired Magazine did a piece called: Did the Clinton Campaign Doctor Obama Footage to Make Him 'Blacker'?. The article explains how blogs have been exploding with videos and comments due to competition between Obama and Clinton. In the article they show the a photo of what Obama looks like and how the Clinton Add made him blacker in the video. Personally I am disgusted about how politicians attack one another in such methods. What do you guys think?
Well movie watchers its been another week and another Sunday has arrived. This week my crew decided to see Will Ferrell in his new film Semi Pro. This is by far the best movie this semester. I was piratically crying through the whole movie in tears of laughter. I honestly have no idea where some of this material comes from but it was very amusing. I give this film 5 out 5 stars and strongly urge everyone to see it at least once. Granted it is not going to be one of his all time classics however you will definitely receive a guaranteed laugh. I cant wait to see his new movie step brothers which comes out on July 25th. What did you guys think?
