8. Crime And Unethical Practices
Is piracy a crime? Media developers/producers and members of the public might offer different answers to that question, which is open to debate. Regardless of legality, however, the advent of sites such as The Pirate Bay has revolutionised content distribution, as individuals are able to obtain things that would normally cost money free of charge in a quick and efficient manner. This is despite the fact that countless numbers of their rivals have been shut down by authorities and the site itself is blocked on an overwhelming number of internet service providers (which users continuously circumvent with the creation of new mirrors), highlighting how the unethical practice of censorship is also making its way on a platform designed to encourage freedom. Piracy may be a grey area, but the criminal definitions of fraud and identity theft are clearer and are just as prevalent on the internet as practices such as torrenting and unlicensed streaming are. Individuals fall victim in the thousands to online predators on a daily basis, being tricked into giving up details about their bank accounts, passports and the like through phishing scams and malware distribution, though in most cases this is a result of their own stupidity rather than the technique of the criminal party. Illegal activity such as drug distribution or human trafficking can also be handled through the deep web, areas of the internet not indexed by search engines and only accessible to those with specialist knowledge. Governments have set up cybercrime divisions to try and prevent crimes committed on the internet, but even they arent innocent, with the USA and UK having recently had details of mass surveillance programmes leaked to the press by NSA operative Edward Snowden. Who can you trust these days, eh?