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Nice video explaining the current issues

The SOPA is mainly adresses the protection of intellectual property of content creators. Obviously this is the one of the biggest advantages being proposed by the act as artists and entertainers will be able to profit more from the content they make. Nowadays much of their content is illegally downloaded from the internet, such as music. However SOPA will have a severe impact on online freedom of speech as numerous websites would be affected by the act and blacklisted as a result. The internet is makes frequent use of copyrighted material not necessarily in a legal way. Doing streaming of such content after the act could lead to a maximum penalty of five years in prison. However the US congress states that protecting intellectual property is not the same as censorship http://agbeat.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/sopa-infographic1.png The image above provides more detail about SOPA including how it will take effect and the impact it would have on businesses. It shows the major supporters of SOPA as well as the major opposers, one of them being Google.

Apparently there are multiple ways of circumventing the SOPA: 1. Using a VPN Service 2. Using Your HOSTs File 3. Using TOR 4. Using a Web DNS Tool 5. Changing Your DNS Server 6. Using Command Prompt 7. Using Foxy Proxy 8. Using MAFIAAFire Source: http://www.zeropaid.com/news/95013/8-technical-methods-that-make-the-protect-ip-act-useless/

The concern is privacy.Apparently the FBI was able to acquire Kim DotCom's messages with other MegaUpload employers by means of spyware, which could access skype conversations stored on a local host. Even though the FBI had a warrant to search for information, this is still rather disconcerting. This software can easily be misused. The software is called CIPAV and it stands for Computer and Internet Protocol Address Verifier. This software is able to send "network-level messages" containing the target computer's IP address, Ethernet MAC address, environment variables, the last-visited Web site, and other registry-type information including the name of the registered owner of the computer and the operating system's serial number. http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10222294-38.html

I agree with you Morten. The social and ethical issue here is privacy. In the article they specify when saying "Sources told CNET yesterday that Skype, the Internet phone service now owned by Microsoft, was not asked by the feds to turn over information and was not served with legal process" that Skype did not give permission to the FBI to access this information. Even though the Data Protection Act states that "Personal data shall be obtained only for one or more specified and lawful purposes, and shall not be further processed in any manner incompatible with that purpose or those purposes." it is still not appropriate to "hack" into Kim DotCom's messages. Here is a link with the rules for Data Protection Act. http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1998/29/schedule/1 Privacy is coming to bits, the only way we can talk to people knowing that knowing is going to get hold o f that information is by face-to-face communication, and even by that way people can be hearing the conversation secretly. Where has privacy gone?

By banning accounts, Twitter is giving into outside pressure to effectively censor its own website, and destroying one of the main goals that was set out at the time of the company's creation: freedom of speech. Once one account is banned it sets up a precedent for other governments, and businesses to politetly request Twitter to 'censor' what governments believe to be 'illegal' accounts.

The social and ethical issue mainly presented is surveillance. The twitter accounts are set up to warn the followers of traffic stops, roadblocks etc, this gives time for the followers to avoid the police. This is an even bigger problem to tackle because most smartphones have access to Twitter through a 3G connection, this means that users are able to get push notifications on the road as well as at home. I agree with 'Fiche Galinha' in the sense that the banning of the accounts does go against freedom of speech however, it is a sensible measure to take as the account users are making police officers jobs more difficult.

"Hacking group leader, identified as Hector Xavier Monsegur, revealed"

"have very little answer to onion routing, and when combined with th"

Government control exemplified....

in commie china... oh wait