Wednesday, October 30, 2019

Interview Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 22

Interview - Essay Example Answering the question was challenge because I expected to write about law. I revealed my state of lack of information concerning the question. His response was that there were many commonalities across the different types of law. He noted that for relevance, one should specialize in one of them, for instance, the criminal environment, the civil rights, and others. I stuck to my generalized approach, which the professor agreed. The first question I asked the professor was what kind of experience he had gained that are useful in his writings. He answered by telling me that experience gives writes a part of the story to tell the readers. He said that a writer has to be extremely relevant, which is why experience counts. He elaborated his life at the University where he was a member of the law editorial column of the school’s magazine. Experience formed a core of his writings because it quotes precise parts of both the federal and state legislations. He said that he needed to be as relevant as possible to the law so that his perspective may appeal to the readers. In answering the question, I learned that he meant that the practice of legal writing is not a creative writing, but a factual field with lots of criticism. What the professor had learned in life was a crucial element of his works. The next question, which I asked was if there was any limitation to the type of writing especially in style and thematic concerns. Mr. Weisberg replied that there were limitations of course to the themes and style of writing. He alluded to the lack of creative perspectives to legal writings. He said that the authors in such fields should stick to what is factual and not speculated of fictional. For instance, the authors should stick to the legal vocabulary because of its complexity. According to the professor, the legal vocabulary is so complex that even the lawyers have to keep referring to a continued relevance. He

Monday, October 28, 2019

Information Technology Ethics Essay Example for Free

Information Technology Ethics Essay Definitions -the right to be alone – the most comprehensive of rights, and the right most valued by people. (Justice Louis Brandeis, Olmstead v. US, 1928) -the right of individuals to control the collection and use of information about themselves. Legal Aspects Protection from unreasonable intrusion upon one’s isolation. Protection from appropriation of one’s name or likeness.  Protection from unreasonable publicity given to one’s private. Protection from publicity that unreasonably places one in a false light before the public. RECENT HISTORY OF PRIVACY PROTECTION Communication Act of 1934 -it restricted the government’s ability to secretly intercept communications. However, under a 1968 federal statute, law enforcement officers can use wiretapping if they first obtain a court order. Wiretapping the interception of telephone or telegraph communications for purpose of espionage or surveillance. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) (passed -1966, amended-1974) provides the public with the means to gain access to certain government records such as the spending patterns of an agency, the agency’s policies and the reasoning behind them, and the agency’s mission and goals. Fair Credit Reporting Act (1970) this act regulates the operations of credit-reporting bureaus, including how they collect, store, and use credit information. it is designed to promote accuracy, fairness, and privacy of information in the files of credit reporting companies and to check verification systems that gather and sell information about people. Privacy Act (1974) declares that no agency of the U.S. government can conceal the existence of any personal data record-keeping system, and that any agency that maintains such a system, must publicly describe both the kind of information in it and the manner in which the information will be used. the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the law enforcement agencies are excluded from this act. the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) â€Å"Fair Information Practices† are often held up as a model of ethical treatment of consumer data for organization to adopt. Summary of the 1980 OECD privacy guidelines Principle Guideline Collection limitation Limit the collection of personal data. All such data must be obtained lawfully and fairly with the subject’s consent and knowledge. Data Quality Personal data should be accurate, complete, current and relevant to the purpose for which it is used. Purpose Specification The purpose for which personal data is collected should be should be specified and should not be changed. Use Limitation Personal data should not be used beyond the specified purpose without a persons consent or by authority of law. Security Safeguards Personal data should be protected against unauthorized access, modification, or disclosure. Openness principle Data policies should exist and a â€Å"data controller† should be identified. Individual participation People should have the right to review their data, to challenge its correctness, and to have incorrect data changed. Accountability A â€Å"data controller† should be responsible for ensuring that the above principles are met. Children’s Online Protect Act (COPA)(1998) The law states that a website that caters to children must offer comprehensive privacy policies, notify their parents or guardians about its data collection practices, and receive parental consent before collecting any personal information from children under 13 years of age. European Company Directives 95/46/EC (1998) requires any company that does business within the borders of 15 Western European nations to implement a set of privacy directives on fair and appropriate use of information. Summary of the European Data Privacy Principle Notice Tell all customer what is done with their information. Choice Give customer a way to opt out of marketing. Onward Transfer Ensure that suppliers comply with the privacy policy. Access Give customer access to their information. Security Protect customer information from unauthorized access. Data Integrity Ensure that information are accurate and relevant. Enforcement Independently enforce the privacy policy. Better Business Bureau Online (BBB Online) and TRUSTe independent, nonprofit initiatives that favor an industry-regulated approach to data privacy which concerned about the government regulation that could have a negative impact on the Internet’s use and growth, and that such regulation would be costly to implement and difficult to change. The BBB Online Seal adheres that the website has a high level of data privacy. The seal program identifies online businesses that honor their own stated privacy policy. The TRUSTe’s main rule is that websites should openly communicate what information it gathers, its use, to whom it will be shared, and does the consumer has a choice of opting out. Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (1998) -this act required all financial-services institutions to communicate their data privacy policies and honor customer data-gathering preferences by July 1, 2001. This was to make them take actions to protect and secure customers’ nonpublic data from unauthorized access or use. KEY PRIVACY AND ANONYMITY ISSUES GOVERNMENTAL ELECTRONIC SURVEILLANCE Federal Wiretap Act (U.S. Code Title 18 Part 1, Chapter 119, Wire and Electronic Communications Interception and Interception of Oral Communications) it requires processes to obtain court authorization for surveillance of all kinds of electronic communications, including e-mail, fax, internet, and voice, in criminal investigation. A court order must be issued based on probable cause before a wiretap can commence. roving tap government authority to obtain a court order that does not name a specific telephone or e-mail, but allows them to tap any phone lines or internet accounts that the suspect uses. Electronic Communication Privacy Act of 1986 (ECPA, U.S Code Title 18, part 2, Chapter 206) standards for access to stored e-mail and other electronic communications and records. ECPA amended Title III (Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968) extended the title III’s prohibitions against the unauthorized interception (use of person’s oral or electronic communications). -this act failed to address emerging technologies such as wireless modems, cellular, data networks, etc. thus, this communication can still be legally intercepted. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA) allows wiretapping of aliens and citizens in the U.S. based on a finding of probable cause that the target is a member of a foreign terrorist group or an agent of a foreign power. Executive Order 123333 (U.S. Pres. Reagan, 1982) legal authority for electronic surveillance outside the U.S. It permits intelligence agencies to intercept communications outside the U.S. without a court order. Communication Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA, 1994) it covers radio-based data communication. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) required providers of Internet phone and broadband services to ensure that their equipment can allow police wiretaps. USA Patriot Act of 2001 Gives sweeping new powers to Domestic law enforcement and International intelligence agencies. It contains several sunsets that gives the government much more surveillance capability. Sunset provisions – can terminates itself or portions after a specific date unless further actions is taken to extend the law DATA ENCRYPTION Cryptography – the science of encoding messages so that only the sender and the intended receiver can understand them. Encryption – the process of converting an electronic message into a form that can be understood only by the intended recipients. Public key encryption system uses two keys Message receiver’s public key readily available Message receiver’s private key kept secret Private key encryption system Single key to encode and decode messages RSA (named after Rivest, Shamir and Adleman) – is a public key encryption algorithm, the basis for much of the security that protects Web consumers and merchants. PGP ( Pretty Good Privacy) – uses 128 bit encryption that represents a total of 2128 . DES (Digital Encryption Standard) – the standard for encryption, it employs a 56 bit key that represents 7.21016 . (It can now be crack using brute methods) AES (Advanced Encryption Standards) – requires crackers to try as many as 1.11077 combinations. IDENTITY THEFT occurs when someone steals key pieces of personal information to gain access to a person’s financial accounts. fastest growing form of fraud in the United States. Phishing – is an attempt to steal personal identity data by tricking users into entering the information on a counterfeit Website. Spear-phishing – is a variation in which employees are sent phony emails that look like they came from high-level executives within their organization. Spyware – is a term for keystroke-logging software that is downloaded to users computer without adequate notice, consent, or control for the user. It creates a record of keystrokes entered into the computer with or without internet and will send to the email of the spy when internet connections are available. Identity Theft and Assumption Deterrence Act of 1998 the congress passed this act to fight identity fraud, making it a federal felony punishable by a prison sentence of 3 -25 years. researchers estimated that 1 of 700 identity crimes were led to conviction. CONSUMER PROFILING Companies openly collect personal information about Internet users. They also obtain information without users permission through the use of cookies. marketing firms uses this information in building databases that contains consumer behavioral data. They want to know about who the users are, what they like, how they behave, and what motives them to buy. Cookies a text file that a website puts on your hard drive so that it can remember your information later on. Affiliated Websites – is a group or collection of websites served by a single advertising network. 3 Types of Data Gathered POST – it is entered into a blank fields on an affiliated website when a consumer signs up for a service. GET – it reveals what the consumer requested product in a specific store. Click-Stream Data it is the tracking of the information the user sought and viewed. 4 Ways to Limit/Stop deposit Cookies Set browsers to limit or stop cookies or browse the web using the incognito browsing mode which will remove all marks of your browsing. Manually delete cookies in your hard drives. Download and install cookie management program. Or use anonymous proxy websites to browse websites. However, some websites lock users to browse in their page when cookie is disabled. Personalization software – it is used by marketers to optimize the number, frequency and mixture of their ad placements. It is also used to evaluate how visitors react to new ads. Types of Personalization Software Rule-based – used business rules that are tied to customer provided preferences or online behaviors to determine the most appropriate page views and product information to display. Collaborative Filtering – offers consumer recommendations based on the types of product purchased by other people with similar buying habits. Types of Personalization Software (Continued) Demographic Filtering – it augments click stream data and user supplied data with demographics information associated with user zip codes to make product suggestions. Contextual Commerce – associates product promotions and other e-commerce offerings with specific content a user may receive in a new story online. Platforms for Privacy Preferences (P3P) shields users from site that don’t provide the level of privacy protection  they desire. Instead of forcing users to find and read through the privacy policy for each site they visit, P3P software in the computers browser will download the privacy policy for each site, scan it and notify users if the policy does not match their preferences. The World Wide Web Consortium, an international privacy group whose members include Apple, Commerce One, Ericsson, and Microsoft, created P3P and is supporting its development. TREATING CONSUMERS DATA RESPONSIBILITY -Strong measures are required to avoid customer relationship problems. Code of Fair Information Practices – most widely accepted approach to treating consumers data responsibly. Guidelines of Code of Fair Information Practices and the 1980 OECD an organizations collects only personal information that is necessary to deliver its product and services. Company ensures that the information is carefully protected and accessible only by those with a need to know, and that consumers can review their own data and make corrections. Company informs customers if it intends to use it’s information for research or marketing, and it provides a means for them to opt out. Chief Privacy Officer (CPO) executive to oversee data privacy policies and initiatives. Duties of CPO Avoid government regulations and reassure customers that their privacy will be protected. Stop or modify major company marketing initiatives. Training employees about privacy and checking the companies privacy policy for potential risks. Figuring out if gaps exist and how to fill them. Developing and managing a process for customer privacy disputes. WORKPLACE MONITORING Employers monitor workers – Ensures that corporate IT usage policy is followed Fourth Amendment cannot be used to limit how a private employer treats its employees. – Public-sector employees have far greater privacy rights than in the private industry. Privacy advocates want federal legislation – To keeps employers from infringing upon privacy rights of employees. SPAMMING the transmission of the same email message to a large number of people. Spammers target individual users with direct email messages, building their mail list by scanning Usenet postings, buying mail lists or searching the web for addresses. extremely inexpensive method of marketing. used by many legitimate organizations. can contain unwanted and objectionable materials. Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing(CAN-SPAM)  the act says it is legal to spam provided that the message meet a few basic requirements: (1) spammers cannot disguise identity, (2) there must be a label in the message specifying that it is an ad or solicitation, and (3) include a way that the recipient can stop the receiving of spam. The act failed to slow the flow of spam but instead, it actually increased the flow of spam by legalizing it. ADVANCED SURVEILLANCE TECHNOLOGY Advanced surveillance technology provide a new data gathering capabilities, however, these advance can also diminish individuals privacy. Advocates of the technology argue that people have no legitimate expectations of privacy in a public place. Camera Surveillance is one of the most common advanced system used in surveillance nowadays. It has the capability to record events, detecting unusual behaviour, automatically capturing important events, and used in monitoring day to day events in different places. Facial Recognition Software There have been numerous experiments with facial recognition software to help identify criminal suspects and other undesirable characters. It has been first tested by the Rampart Division of the Los Angeles Police Department and yielded a result. Global Positioning System (GPS) These are chips placed in different devices to monitor locations of the  users. It is useful in locating callers of 911, parents monitoring their children, etc.

Saturday, October 26, 2019

The Haber Process :: essays research papers

1. The Haber Process During the first decade of the twentieth century the world-wide demand for ammonia for use in fertilisers (in the form of nitrates) and in the production of explosives for use in mining and warfare could only be satisfied on a large scale from deposits of guano in Chile (2). Though this deposit was of huge size (approximately five feet thick and 385 kilometres long) it represented a rapidly depleting resource when compared to world-wide demand. As a result of this there was much research into how ammonia could be produced from atmospheric nitrogen. The problem was eventually solved by Fritz Haber (1868 - 1934) in a process which came to be known as the "Haber Process" or the "Haber - Bosch Process". Haber developed a method for synthesising ammonia utilising atmospheric nitrogen and had established the conditions for large scale synthesis of ammonia by 1909 and the process was handed over to Carl Bosch for industrial development (1). the reaction is a simple equilibrium reaction which occurs in gaseous state as follows; N2 (g) + 3H2 (g) = 2NH3 (g) heat of enthalpy = -92.6 kJ/mol In predicting how to obtain the highest yield from this reaction we must refer to Le Chatlier's Principle. This states that for an equilibrium reaction the equilibrium will work in the opposite direction to the conditions forced upon it. The conditions most pertinent to the above reaction are temperature and pressure. The pressure exerted by any gas or mixture of gasses in an enclosed space is directly proportional to the number of atoms or molecules of gas regardless of their size or molecular mass. Reference to the above reaction shows that, as the reaction moves to the right the number of molecules and hence the pressure decreases. Therefore the reaction moving to the right (i.e. towards the product required) is favoured by an increase in pressure. With regard to temperature, the reaction moving to the right is exothermic i.e. it gives off energy (in the form of heat). Therefore reference to Le Chatlier's Principle shows that the reaction to the right is favoured by low temperatures. However, when Haber placed the reactants together under these conditions it was shown that the rate of reaction was so slow as to render the process unfeasible as an industrial process. This is because of an unusually high activation energy. The activation energy of a reaction is the energy required by the reactants to achieve an intermediate state required before they form the products.

Thursday, October 24, 2019

The Company of Wolves

â€Å"The Company of Wolves† by Angela Carter follows the story line of the classic children’s fairytale â€Å"Little Red Riding Hood† which is known universally in the western world. Despite the relationship between the two stories, â€Å"The Company of Wolves† has cunningly been written with an eerie atmosphere and plot twists to engage the reader. Reinvented into a gothic fantasy, the story highlights Red Riding Hood’s innocence and uses the Wolf as a metaphor for men to position the reader to react differently than the classic fairytale.It becomes obvious to the reader that the story is based upon the well known fairy tale ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ but Carter has twisted the innocent children’s story into a extravagant gothic fantasy which positions the reader to grasp a greater understanding of the events leading up to the climax and the background in general. The stylist choices of magic realism differ from the classic denot ation of fantasy because realistic frameworks of the real world are twisted with the supernatural resulting in murderous, sadistic or brutal situations; in this instance Red Riding Hood engaging in sexual acts with the Wolf.From the beginning the reader is fully aware of the stylistic choice of gothic fantasy, â€Å"One beast and only one beast howls in the woods by night† is typical of gothic tales as woods are usually portrayed as a dangerous and a forbidding setting, but also provides emphasis through repetition of ‘one beast’ and ‘only one’ to draw the reader’s attention onto the fact that the Wolf is important and plays a significant role in the story.A common aspect of gothic tales is winter which is the setting of the story, as shown through distribution of the words ‘snow’, ‘Christmas’, ‘Robin’, ‘blizzard’ and ‘cold’ throughout the story which are classic connotations rel ative to the season. The stylistic choice made by Carter in relation to the classic fairy style creates an eerie atmosphere and positions the reader to question if they really know the plot of the story.Little Red Riding Hood is portrayed as an innocent little girl in the classic fairy tale which is carried through into Carters version with a few twists. Initially Little Red’s innocence is clearly defined as her virginal status is described using metaphors as ‘She is an unbroken egg; she is a sealed vessel’ and her physical appearance resembles that of a young girl ‘hair like lint, pale forehead, scarlet cheeks’. Since she has ‘started her woman’s bleeding’ it is safe to assume that her shawl is symbolic to represents just that or her innocence as she nters this period of her life. As the story progresses Little Red does not hesitate to hand over her basket when ‘he [the Wolf] offered to carry her basket’, assuming th e basket is a symbol used to represents her virginity this scene illustrates how uneducated girls in this era were about sex and the risk it posed to them. Little Red is not hesitant about handing over her basket because she has no clue about what the Wolf is doing, although she does not know what was about to happen to her he certainly does.At this specific point in the story the reader is positioned to re-evaluate the innocence of the girl, questioning whether the wolf is taking advantage of her or whether she knows what she wants. Regarding Little Red’s shawl representing her innocence, nearing the end of the story the Wolf exclaims in reply to her asking what to do with it choice of diction, â€Å"Throw it into the fire, dear one.You won’t need it again,† clearly distinguishes that he has taken her innocence and virginity and that there is no way for it to be reversed; ‘fire’ representing an irreversible doing. The innocence of Little Red has in evitably been taken away and no long exists to the reader, the reader will no longer be able to read the original version without the constant reminder of Little Red’s deterioration of innocence in Carters version. Carter, being a classic feminist, has shaped the Wolf into a metaphor of the negative side to men.To begin ‘One beast and only one beast howls in the woods’, in particularly the repetition of ‘one’ and ‘only one’ provides emphasis upon the fact that there is only one wolf and that he is an important asset to the story, perhaps the fact that the story could not function without this male character which makes him very important and dominant. Carter has used this to mirror her opinion that men, or some men, have a mindset that a women’s life could not function without them. The wolf is quick to ‘offer[ered] to carry her basket’, which is a symbol of her virginity.These actions demonstrate Carters opinion on m en thinking they can dominate women especially since the Wolf knew exactly what he was doing relative to Little Red who was oblivious to his actions because she is uneducated on sex. The Wolf is conveyed by the reader as a vicious sexual predator out to claim young girl’s virginity, which positions them to feel sympathetic for Little Red who represents women. The dominancy of the Wolf taking the girls virginity is pursued near the end of the story as the Wolf orders her to, â€Å"Throw it [shawl] on the fire, dear one.You won’t need it again,† which is significant because the shawl represents her virginity which has now been burnt. The diction of the phrase ‘dear one’ is effective because it demonstrates how a man can pretend to care about a girls feelings and be sweet in order to manipulate her into doing something to his advantage. By this point in the story the reader has been positioned to view the Wolf differently from the one that gets killed in the traditional story to a dominant male character who has no respect for Little Red.Once the reader has read â€Å"The Company of Wolves† they definitely won’t be able to see the classic â€Å"Little Red Riding Hood† in the same light again. Reinvented into a gothic fantasy, the story highlights Red Riding Hood’s innocence and uses the Wolf as a metaphor for men to position the reader to react differently than the classic fairytale. The story however does not necessarily have only negative outcomes because it could make the reader to think deeper about how other characters in different fairytales have been portrayed and how they can challenge the expectations they have been placed in.

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

History of bootlegging Essay

1. Background on Bootlegging It has been said that â€Å"at its real level music belongs to everyone†. To claim ownership over music has been the subject of much analysis since music, after all, is available to each individual through our sense of hearing. Maintaining control or possession of â€Å"our† music is not as clear cut as meting out our rights to our land or property. To listen to a song someone else has written, for instance, does not necessarily constitute stealing or trespassing on someone else’s property. The best way to ensure our right and title over our musical creations is to get a copyright over the original piece. Yet it is not uncommon for a listener or a music lover or fan to record a favorite song or a particularly memorable concert attended. People record songs, concerts, and videos and keep such recordings for personal use, or make copies thereof to give to their friends. Songs and videos are also easily downloaded from the Internet. Fans also record different songs and performances, from different albums or concerts, into one CD or online play list to make their own personal collection. The problem is when such recordings are distributed and sold for profit without the artist and the record company’s consent. Generally, copyright violations involving musical creations may be distinguished into three different types : 1) professional counterfeit recordings (unauthorized duplication of sound and art work) 2) professional pirate recordings (unauthorized duplication of the sound, but with original art work, usually sold as â€Å"greatest hits† compilations 3) bootleg recordings (unauthorized recording of live performances) Bootlegging, as it was traditionally defined, involves â€Å"the illegal distribution or production of liquor and other highly taxed goods† In the 1920s, the United States had a Prohibition against alcohol, thus people resorted to bootlegging, or buying and selling an illegal product, from bootleggers. Organized crime consisting of gangs and mobsters in Chicago and New York, such as Al Capone, were deeply involved in bootlegging. In the music industry, music bootlegging involves the taking and trading of unauthorized live recordings of live musical performers — either from concert or studio outtakes. Bootleg music albums are recordings transferred from tape to vinyl or CD. They become a bootleg product when a bootlegger undertakes to create an artifact or when a non-commercial recording is transformed into a commercial product in the form of an LP or a CD. Bootleg recordings are usually done without the artist’s consent ; however, making a recording of a concert is not illegal per se. Although an individual cannot legally record an officially release CD or cassette tape on to a blank tape, he or she may make an unauthorized recording of a concert and keep it for personal use. However, the sale of such a recording is deemed illegal.  The problems with bootlegging is that it prevents the artist and the record company from maintaining quality control over their product , and it prevents them from collecting their royalties to their right to their music. 2. Changes in Copyright Laws Copyright is defined as â€Å"a form of protection provided by the laws of the United States (title 17, U. S. Code) to the authors of ‘original works of authorship’† . The U. S. has passed significant copyright laws to protect an artist’s right to his or her original creations. These creations include not only musical works, but literary, dramatic, artistic and certain intellectual creations. The U. S. Constitution itself provides that â€Å"the Congress shall have power†¦ to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries. † The State thus allows Congress to pass copyright laws to protect an artist’s rights to his or her musical creations. The U. S. Copyright Act was amended in 1976 so that it now covers new technological advancements and extended the term of protection to cover the life of the author plus 70 more years. Copyright laws allow the author, artist, or whoever holds the copyright to a creation to sue those who infringe on their copyrights for damages. The complainant has to prove infringement of copyright by a) proving ownership of the copyright and b) copying by the infringer-defendant. In compliance with its Constitutional mandate of protecting original works of authorship, the Congress has passed several laws concerning music copyright infringement, piracy and bootlegging. Some of the relevant laws will be discussed in this section. The Audio Home Recording Act allows music retailers to sell all analog and digital recording formats. It also gives a consumer the right to use such recordings provided such use is for non-commercial purposes, and in such cases, no copyright infringement lawsuit may be brought against a consumer. The consumer and retailer is also exempt from making royalty payments on digital audio recording devices and media; the burden falls on U. S. manufacturers and importers only who must pay for digital audio devices designed or marketed primarily for making digital audio recordings for private use, whether or not these are incorporated in some other device. These royalty payments are administered and monitored by the U. S. Register of Copyrights and the Librarian of Congress, with the proceeds split between the featured artists and the record company, or between the songwriters and music publishers, depending on the circumstances. Musical artists or musicians thus receive royalties which are based on record sales and airplay during a prescribed period. The U. S. is also a signatory of both the World Intellectual Property Organization Copyright Treaty and the Performances and Phonograms Treaty. In accordance with these international agreements, the U. S.  Congress passed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act which makes it a crime to a crime to circumvent anti-piracy measures built into many of today’s commercial software and even most music CDs. The Act also limits the copyright infringement liability of ISPs for transmitting information over the Internet, but requires that ISPs remove copyright infringement materials found in users’ web sites. Despite legislative acts and proposed bills by well meaning members of the U. S. Congress, and jurisprudence laid down by the U. S. Supreme Court, infringers still find a way of getting around copyright laws by invoking the â€Å"fair use† doctrine. The U.  S. Code provides that the public is entitled to the â€Å"fair use† of copyrighted material. â€Å"Fair use† is â€Å"a privilege to use copyrighted material in a reasonable manner without consent, notwithstanding the copyright monopoly granted to the owner. † A copyrighted original creation may be reproduced for purposes of criticism, news reporting, comment, teaching, scholarship and research. The Code further provides that there are four factors in determining whether there is â€Å"fair use† of a copyrighted material or not : 1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes ) the nature of the copyrighted work itself 3) the proportion and substantiality of the copyrighted work actually used without authority 4) the potential economic detriment on the value of the work caused by such unauthorized use thereof. What makes it especially difficult to enforce the copyright is that information is so readily available through the Internet. As music is downloaded courtesy of digital technology, consumers are turning to the Internet to get their music rather than going out to music stores to buy the CDs. Bootlegged albums are also easily transmitted and shared through the Internet. Digital technology allows consumer to reproduce identical copies of digital music files, most commonly in compression formats such as MP3s. Such digital advancements not only pave the way for more widespread bootlegging, but for music piracy as well. 3. Advancements in Piracy Technology: File Sharing Piracy, as earlier discussed, is differentiated from bootlegging in that the former involve the unauthorized duplication of the sound, but with original art work. Piracy involves the reproduction and distribution of copies of original recordings. Advancements in digital technology have allowed music piracy to develop at an alarming rate. MP3s enable consumers to compress digitized music into smaller files, while ripping software allows them to copy music from CDs, store these on their hard drives, and then convert these files into compressed formats. Digital file reproduction devices, like CD players, in turn allow consumers to write these files into a CD and in effect create their own albums and compilations of copyrighted creations. Peer-to-peer (P2P) networks have also allowed increased music dissemination, as well as file sharing, as introduced by the infamous Napster software company. P2P networks basically offer users to access the hard drives of other users anywhere in the world by the installation of a piece of software. These networks allow users to search, copy and transfer music files typically through MP3 files. After Napster, subsequent P2P networks version, like KaZaA and Grokstar, which are collectively known as the FastTrack providers, allow users to access multiple individual computers instead of accessing just one single, centralized database of music files. The digital audio workstation (DAW) on the other hand, allows users to indulge in â€Å"sampling† – original music recordings, converted from analog to digital format, which users can import, cut, copy, layer and manipulate to create new musical work. Since samples may be in a band’s entire song, or merely passages from an instrument, in effect it allows not just users but even musicians and DJs to create, layer, expand and redefine music. Recording companies have resorted to copy-protection technology to protect themselves from piracy committed through file sharing and P2P networks. Copy-protected CDs is one answer, but public backlash and concerns about the technology’s effectiveness, have forced recording companies to limit use of such CDs in the U. S. and instead opted to release such CDs abroad in Europe and countries such as Japan. Five major recording companies in the U. S. use copy-protected CDs: BMG Entertainment, Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, EMI, and Sony. BMG in particular has made us of copy-protection advancements such the MediaMax CD-3 technology from SunnComm Technologies, Inc. located in Phoenix, Arizona. Through MediaMax CD-3, each song is written onto a CD twice. One format is readable by standard CD players while the other format is readable as a Windows media file playable on a computer. The technology allows consumers of BMG records to burn each track only three times per computer. The songs in BMG albums embedded with the MediaMax CD-3 technology may also be emailed to a limited number of people. However, each person in that limited list may only listen to ten times to each song in the album. In other words, songs in such CDs are locked and won’t be played even if they are downloaded from file-sharing networks if it exceeds the allowable number of times a person may listen to the track. Other developments are even more rigid. The CDS-300 developed by Macrovision, located in Santa Clara, California, allows CDs to be burnt and listened to online, but blocks other attempts to make copies or share music online. Recording companies thus are faced with a difficult balancing act. On the one hand, there is the need to respect a consumer’s desire to share, copy and hear songs in different ways. But on the other hand, there is the copyright to take note of and the bottom line – earning revenues through royalties by limiting the number of copies consumers make of copyrighted musical creations.