Most internet users are likely to remember the Stop Online
Piracy Act (which most knew as SOPA) that flooded the news less than two years
ago. Essentially the bill was made in an attempt to stop the illegal download
of movies, music and other media. Previous efforts had been made, such as the
infamous shut down of popular pirate site LimeWire, but for every torrent site
shut down, two more popped up. SOPA’s plan would have been much more forceful,
effectively censoring the internet. The internet, of course, was in rage, with
even major websites such as Wikipedia protesting against it.
Even though nearly everyone was against them, many
government officials insisted that the bill was necessary and made every
attempt to enforce that stopping piracy was of the absolute utmost importance.
This insistence wasn’t without a good bit of hypocrisy though, as allegations
that staff members of the House of Representatives were taking part in the
pirating. This may have led to the eventual defeat of the bill.
Almost two years have passed since SOPA, and an interesting
thing has arisen in the news: government officials are still pirating using government computers. ScanEye, a program which
tracks BitTorrent downloads and where they are being downloaded from. Apparently,
quite a few movies and TV shows have been illegally downloaded through online
torrents. It’s become quite clear that stopping piracy isn’t all that crucial
to everyone in the government.
#mwtg325
http://mashable.com/2013/01/15/federal-employees-pirating/
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