In recent years, people using information technology more to meet their demand for entertainment. For example, on-line game, MP3, on-line TV, movies and so on, which are belong such technology. The increasing of this demand is accompanied the growth of motivation and behavior of piracy. This study focused on recognize and decision pattern of behavior that downloading unauthorized movies, and tried to join the emotion impact, and, understanding college students¡¦ intention of downloading. The research model of this study based on triangle interaction from Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) and its core ¢w Self-efficacy, and developing questionnaire from literature review. The questionnaire measuring the social cognize and personal belief about the behavior which downloading unauthorized movies, and make up an movie with text and post, in order to engagement into the situation, and measuring the impact of intention. The results showed that the research model based on SCT will explain the detail of motivations and decision making about the intention to illegal downloading of common college students, and verified that emotion have the impact in decision making process. According to result, we recommend the irrational factor to research about piracy. For practice, we recommend the preventive of piracy will not only by viewpoint of ¡§crime¡¨ but also by investigate the motivation of piracy.

It is imperative the public be made aware of major media policy decisions to help take part in and shape the industry that they rely on to be an informed citizenry in a democracy. However, in an increasingly concentrated media landscape where fewer owners control our channels of information and reign over a vast array of holdings, the system is firmly positioned to conceal or marginalize policy stories that negatively affect its business interests. This study explores mainstream TV news coverage of the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act or SOPA– legislation proposed to reduce counterfeit purchases online that came under fire from critics for potentially threatening the fabric of free expression on the Internet. By asking, “How much attention did major television news networks whose parent companies supported SOPA devote to the bill during their nightly broadcasts?” and “How much attention did major television news networks whose parent companies supported SOPA devote to the bill during their nightly broadcasts after the Internet Blackout protesting the Act?” it finds those networks whose parent companies sought to benefit from the Act’s passage failed to report on the legislation at crucial times before and after the SOPA debate. The results largely fall in line with the mainstream media– namely the broadcast industry’s– historical self-censorship of significant media policy stories. / text

published_or_final_version / Computer Science / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

This thesis explores regulatory mechanisms of managing the phenomenon of file sharing in the online environment without impeding key aspects of digital innovation, utilising a modified version of Lessig’s modalities of regulation to demonstrate significant asymmetries in various regulatory approaches. After laying the foundational legal context, the boundaries of future reform are identified as being limited by extra-jurisdictional considerations, and the regulatory direction of legal strategies to which these are related are linked with reliance on design-based regulation. The analysis of the plasticity of this regulatory form reveals fundamental vulnerabilities to the synthesis of hierarchical and architectural constraint, that illustrate the challenges faced by the regulator to date by countervailing forces. Examination of market-based influences suggests that the theoretical justification for the legal regulatory approach is not consistent with academic or policy research analysis, but the extant effect could impede openness and generational waves of innovation. A two-pronged investigation of entertainment industry-based market models indicates that the impact of file sharing could be mitigated through adaptation of the traditional model, or that informational decommodification could be harnessed through a suggested alternative model that embraces the flow of free copies. The latter model demonstrates how the interrelationships between extant network effects and sub-model externalities can be stimulated to maximise capture of revenue without recourse to disruption. The challenges of regulating community-based norms are further highlighted where the analysis submits that the prevalence of countervailing forces or push-back from the regulated act as an anti-constraint to hierarchical and design-based regulation, due to an asymmetry between legal, architectural and traditional market-based approaches, and effective control of the file sharing community. This thesis argues that file sharing can be regulated most efficaciously by addressing this asymmetry through alternative market-based strategies. This can be influenced through extending hierarchical regulation to offer alternative legal and norm-based models that complement, rather than disrupt, the community-based norms of file sharing.

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Education / Master / Master of Science in Information Technology in Education

For digital media, the risk of piracy is aggravated by the ease to copy and distribute the content. Watermarking has become the technology of choice for discouraging people from creating illegal copies of digital content. Watermarking is the practice of imperceptibly altering the media content by embedding a message, which can be used to identify the owner of that content. A watermark message can also be a set of instructions for the display equipment, providing information about the content’s usage restrictions. Several applications are considered and three watermarking solutions are provided. First, applications such as owner identification, proof of ownership, and digital fingerprinting are considered and a fast content-dependent image watermarking method is proposed. The scheme offers a high degree of robustness against distortions, mainly additive noise, scaling, low-pass filtering, and lossy compression. This method also requires a small amount of computations. The method generates a set of evenly distributed codewords that are constructed via an iterative algorithm. Every message bit is represented by one of these codewords and is then embedded in one of the image’s 8 × 8 pixel blocks. The information in that particular block is used in the embedding so as to ensure robustness and image fidelity. Two watermarking schemes designed to prevent theatre camcorder piracy are also presented. In these methods, the video is watermarked so that its display is not permitted if a compliant video player detects the watermark. A watermark that is robust to geometric distortions (rotation, scaling, cropping) and lossy compression is required in order to block access to media content that has been recorded with a camera inside a movie theatre. The proposed algorithms take advantage of the properties of the dual-tree complex wavelet transform (DT CWT). This transform offers the advantages of both the regular and the complex wavelets (perfect reconstruction, approximate shift invariance and good directional selectivity). Our methods use these characteristics to create watermarks that are robust to geometric distortions and lossy compression. The proposed schemes are simple to implement and outperform comparable methods when tested against geometric distortions.

With the digital revolution within video games, the need for Digital Rights Management (DRM) has increased significantly, alongside with the increasing problem of copyright pirates. To counter pirates, DRM was created to prevent illegal copying of software, this to ensure that the Distributors received an income for their work. DRM has, since the start of its use, been getting, a lot of bad criticism from the users of the software protected by DRM.  The main function of this paper is to describe the creation and development of DRM by analysis of the vision of different groups on this phenomenon. The main questions are as follows, is it possible to define the very reason for why DRM was created and if so, can its development through time be defined too? What differences in opinions are there when it comes to DRM, counting the two major groups of creators, sellers, distributors (referred to as distributors) versus individual users (referred to as consumers)? In what way will the research results suggest that the future DRM will develop? The development has gone from solving puzzles in a handbook to start the game each time the user wants to play, to serial numbers that is needed during the installation of the game. Even more extreme measures has been taken, consisting of the installation of an external software to verify the license key and ensure that no illegal actions were taken.  Distributors have shown through the years that the use of DRM is a must to protect their games from piracy. With the years that gone by, the DRM-system has developed into a more advanced software protection system and with this more problems have begun to emerge affecting the legal consumers, like errors preventing the users from playing the game. At the same time Distributors show little interest to remove or lower the usage of DRM. Users believe that the removal of DRM is the perfect solution, but discard the fact that a software without any kind of copy protection would risk not to generate any income at all for the developers.  When we consider now and then, we can see distinct patterns of continuing development of DRM-methods that do not create the same amount of issues for the consumers. The problem however previously addressed by DRM to stop illegal copies has now shifted to whether the consumers have the right to modify or change their purchased games.

Beyond possible sovereignty disputes resulting from melting Arctic ice, very little is said or written about the maritime security implications of climate change. What does climate change mean for Canadian maritime security, and how can Canada adequately prepare to ensure continued safe and secure use of the world’s oceans in an era of climate change? Climate change is relevant to maritime security through two chief dimensions. First, navies will more frequently be tasked to deliver humanitarian assistance and disaster relief in the wake of more intense natural disasters. Second, increasing disorder on land will ‘slop over’ into the world’s oceans, threatening the safety of maritime commerce. Canada has stakes in both of these dimensions, and so there is great impetus for preparedness. The recommended model for preparedness sees Canada’s navy adopting a more varied fleet structure, one better suited for constabulary and diplomatic functions as opposed to traditional military functions.

No abstract available. / Thesis (LL.M.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2008.

Modern maritime piracy is cause for major concern around the world. Although there have been preventative measures deployed by maritime nations to counter the crime, there is a need to develop an efficient regime to prosecute pirates. The general modus operandi that is employed by arresting-vessels is a 'catch-and-release' procedure, which means that there are no further steps taken to bring these pirates to account for their crimes. The purpose of this dissertation is to analyse the main challenges that face domestic judicial systems in prosecuting pirates of the high seas. Chapter 1 of this Dissertation sets out the parameters of the study, followed by Chapter 2 which will detail current international instruments that specifically relate to the crime of maritime piracy. This would include an examination of the successes and shortcomings of the piracy provisions of UNCLOS Articles 1 00 - 107, the recent UNSC Resolutions, SUA, and the IMO as well as discuss the 1MB PRC and other Regional Agreements in place to counter piracy and provide for the successful prosecution of suspected pirates. Chapter 3 will focus on the prosecutorial problems dealing with the crime of piracy that face judicial bodies around the world. The Chapter will highlight and discuss the various political and human rights issues that have discouraged the majority of states from prosecuting suspected offenders of this crime, as well as their reluctance to exercise universal jurisdiction over piracy. In addition, the recent Kenyan ad hoc piracy tribunal decisions will be discussed in order to assess the lack of uniformity in the interpretation and application of international law piracy provisions as against domestic law. Chapter 4 examines the South African Law and Policies in place that counterpiracy, and also considers whether South Africa could exercise jurisdiction over piratical matters. Thereafter, Chapter 5 proposes recommendations that may be employed in order to bring about a much needed uniform approach to the successful prosecution of suspected pirates. Lastly, Chapter 6, shall comment and conclude on the findings of the previous chapters. / Thesis (LL.M.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2012.