11th entry

Piracy is a big problem. However, the solution to it may never come. The programmers that create programs to combat this issue are extremely smart. But, the hackers that try to crack their systems are equally as smart. Law enforcement on this issue is also tough as so many people do it and corruption can't be avoided.

Here in the Philippines, as it was said in class, there is such a place where pirated goods are sold and this certain place is located right beside a police station. How can this happen?

I would like to share that the sale of pirated material is still on going in North America. When I was in Canada locals there told me a certain mall where pirated movies and cds are being sold. This shocked me at first as I thought local authorities would arrest these vendors right away. Apparently those vendors have been there for a while. This just led me to further think that piracy may be here to stay.

10th entry

Piracy in general is a big problem for the IT industry. Pirated copies of software, audio, video and others are as good as the licensed copy. This does make it very alluring to customers to purchase the pirated version rather than the original.

Software companies are implementing more and more methods to combat this problem. The basic plan is to make their software dependent on updates. These updates cannot be availed unless a licensed copy is installed. Some make it so that the pirated version that is installed will fail as soon as it connects to the manufacturers' server.

But is this really the way to go about solving the problem? Will it be financially possible for a software company to produce software and sell it at a cost that would be able to compete with the pirated copies? If this was indeed possible then there will be no need for consumers to purchase pirated material. Also, if the prices are low enough more people will be able to afford to buy the software and thus increase the sales of the product.

9th entry

Last meeting we continued to talk about the episode of Law and Order. The part of the discussion that I found interesting was when Sir asked if it was possible to obtain personal information such as medical records, all the sites a person goes to, bank numbers, passwords and etc.

It would be really cool and at the same time scary if this can actually be done. There would no longer be any privacy when it comes to anything to do with the internet. If this was indeed possible stalking a person would become something that can be easily done. Thankfully this is just a fantasy.

I am sure that any site that would require people to input such personal information will be aware of the importance of keeping these information private. Therefore, they will go through huge lengths to insure that hackers will not be able to obtain the information easily. If they don't protect the information then they will loose clients and in turn loose money.