tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1054910627465846465.post4952849023115722392..comments2024-03-27T22:19:42.121-07:00Comments on The Hitchhiker's Guide to National Affairs: The Pirate Bay can't be blocked in Sweden, court rulesUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1054910627465846465.post-53394505578714342152015-11-30T18:50:22.138-08:002015-11-30T18:50:22.138-08:00I don't think that the morality/legality of to...I don't think that the morality/legality of torrenting and the existence of The Pirate Bay should be the main question. I think this because Internet Service Providers (ISP) don't have the right to police the Internet. They do not own it and do not have the right to block people from accessing certain websites that they choose. It is a violation of rights. Therefore, I agree with the District Court of Stockholm's decision. Additionally, it is not the ISP's responsibility to prevent its users from taking part in illegal activities with their services. All of this is the government's responsibility. The government should prevent illegal activity, but also does not have the right to block a website, like The Pirate Bay, without constitutional legislation. Giving policing power to ISPs is a slippery slope that cannot be allowed to happen.Jared Mayersonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08459444000863745690noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1054910627465846465.post-37045471199798165032015-11-29T12:56:26.685-08:002015-11-29T12:56:26.685-08:00On one hand, pirating copyrighted content is defin...On one hand, pirating copyrighted content is definitely bad -- that's almost inarguable. The point of the copyright is to prevent intellectual property from being obtained illegally without the permission of the owner, which means that pirating is basically theft. Sort of. Of course there's technically no "loss" to the owner, there is loss in the sense that the owner is losing sales. This should, therefore, be combated somehow.<br />However, I don't think ISP's should be required to combat the problem themselves. Illegal use of the internet definitely should not be blamed on the ISP's -- this is ridiculous and seems to be almost scapegoating. It's comparable to banning cars because there are people out there who will use the cars to commit crimes. The owners of piratebay can be held accountable, and I guess its users can be held accountable too, but the ISP should by no means be required to ban it.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01746607846037013604noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1054910627465846465.post-1397108370793971682015-11-28T15:47:20.104-08:002015-11-28T15:47:20.104-08:00This topic makes me feel extremely torn. While I f...This topic makes me feel extremely torn. While I feel that the internet should be freely available and uncensored, I also feel that pirating is very bad. Large companies such as movie and music producers may not be hurt by pirating, but it definitely has the opportunity to make content production difficult for some smaller producers. I think it will be difficult to dissuade people from pirating while keeping the internet completely free. It would require a shift in people's mentality towards the material that they are "stealing" to stop pirating as a whole.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1054910627465846465.post-1006849493633283782015-11-27T21:24:09.803-08:002015-11-27T21:24:09.803-08:00This comment has been removed by the author.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1054910627465846465.post-24368475063679347382015-11-27T21:23:49.789-08:002015-11-27T21:23:49.789-08:00I do agree with the Sweedish District Court's ...I do agree with the Sweedish District Court's decision to allow this ISP to do as they wish and allow free access of the whole internet. This case represents a part of a whole bigger picture: net neutrality and censorship. In the U.S, we had our own landmark in this too; it wasn't a court decision, but legislation. A few years ago, I think when we were in eighth grade, most of the internet just "shut down" in protest to the Stop Online Privacy and the Protect Intellectual Property Acts of 2012. If those were passed, sites that provided free information like Wikipedia would be considered illegal. Google had a doodle of a censor bar over its logo, and Wikipedia only let users see its article on PIPA/SOPA. Much of the internet put on such a great show, and millions signed opposing petitions, that Congress just killed the bills. Therefore, the Sweedish court was most wise in deciding in the ISP's favor, as leaning the other way could eventually lead the way to restriction of free information, not just pirated material, and censorship. Ultimately, ISPs have the first and final says in the matter of net neutrality, though public opinion is in favor of net neutrality.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com