ACTA and Internet Counterfeiting Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

ACTA and Internet Counterfeiting - Essay ExampleAs an e-commerce ordinary, it is utilise as a payment medium through PayPal, VISA and other online payment systems. Moreover, it is the medium through which softcopy products like eBooks, packet system, online courses and other products are delivered. Since most of these activities involve transmission of sensitive information nearly people and more so customers, the information passing through the lucre is encrypted such that the information encoded by the server can only be decoded by the clients storage and vice versa (Illing and Peitz, 2006 102). This content that information being transmitted over encrypted networks cannot be accessed by third parties. This security property of the internet is priceless since it helps to sustain the faith that suppliers and consumers have on the internet however, it also poses one of the major challenges in regulation of content being transmitted over the internet. It enables the internet t o be used for transmission of information, a large portion of which is unauthorised for electronic transmission (Biagi, 2011). Such information includes transmission of age-inappropriate content, rumours and propaganda that may demoralize peace and stability, and secure material. Censorship for inappropriate content can be easily implemented at a country or state level however, transmission of copyrighted material like music, eBooks and software is hard to influence since sharing networks entails use of multiple servers located all over the globe (Hertwig and Maus, 2010 60). This necessitates the sufferance of a common regulatory system, whereby countries work together to enforce antipiracy regulations. This essay discusses the effects of internet misdemeanor of property rights and copyrights and discusses the adoption of ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement), especially in the European Union. Technical Factors Historically duplication of copyrighted materials has always happened however, the internet offered a channel that made the process quite easy to achieve with slight skill level. Moreover, the vastness of the internet and its high rate of growth make any attempt to control its content an exercise in futility. Moreover, the technical knowledge of computer networking specialists gives them the ability to bypass any efforts by regulators, which is the master(prenominal) reason for proliferation of illegal websites (Woodsworth, 2010 185). Moreover, developments in the information technology sector resulted in the proliferation of highly effective but cheap IT equipment, which increased the number of servers, terminals and other devices beyond the scope of regulatory bodies. In fiat to cover the increased usage of the internet for illegal purposes, all stakeholders had to be incorporated in the process, which was the main motive of the implementers of ACTA. The other factor that leads to a high proliferation of computer piracy of software and o ther copyrighted materials is the capacity of network connections to work in both directions, such that information flows to or from a terminal in the same way it does to a server. This allows network terminals like workstations, personal computers and other devices to be used as sources of data, especially as used in peer-to-peer protocols like BitTorrent (Hunnewell and Garlick, 2007). These networks allow users to share data in their computers with other users without the need for a server which makes it almost impossible to detect the circulation of copyrighted material since pieces of the software or other content are usually spread throughout the terminals in the networks. In this case, signally