Legal Issue, Y2K, Artificial Intelligence and Artificial Intelligence

Legal Issues for Software Piracy

Software piracy, or the illegal copying or use of software, involves a number of legal issues. Software is protected by copyright under Title 17 of the U.S. Code, as well as by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Conviction of software piracy can carries civil and criminal penalties.

Definition

Software piracy includes any unauthorized copying or use of software. Unauthorized copies include copies made to a separate media, such as copies burned to CD, or copies made on separate machines, such as loading a program from the same CD onto multiple computers.

Exceptions

The U.S. Copyright Act provides three exceptions to the software piracy prohibition. First, a software purchaser may make a single copy of the software as a “backup” copy. Second, under the “first use” doctrine a software purchaser may sell or give away the software, as long as he does not keep a copy. Finally, certain elements of software may be copied under the “fair use” doctrine, which allows for sampling of works for educational or archival purposes.

Digital Millennium Copyright Act

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), passed in 1998, added further restrictions on software use and extended the number of actions that are subject to civil or criminal penalties. Under the DMCA, software users may not attempt to circumvent copyright protection measures, either by tampering with the software itself or by creating a program or machine that can circumvent copyright protection measures. The DMCA allows an exception for circumventions that are invented solely to test software’s copyright protection measures or to advance research in cryptography.

Y2K

What is Y2K?
During 1960s to late 80s there was a widespread practice in all computer softwares to use two digits for repreasenting a year rather than using 4 digits. This was done to save computer disk and memory space because these resources were relatively expensive in those times. As the year 90’s approached experts began to realize this major shortcoming in the computer application softwares. In year 2000, the computer systems could interpret 00 as 1900 messing up all the computing work. For example if a program function is calculating difference between two dates, it would calculate a negative number. For example difference between 1 Jan 2000 and 31 Dec 1999 could be calculated as -100 years rather than 1 day. This was a major bug for the whole finance industry. The bug not only existed in computer software but it also existed in the firmware being used in the computer hardware. In general this bug threatened all the major industries including utilities, banking, manufacturing, telecom, airlines.

How was it averted?
Y2K bug was a clicking time bomb for all major computer applications. The computer and system application companies came out with year 2000 compliant operating systems and system software. IT companies around the world spent billions of dollars to go through their entire application source code to look for the Y2K bug and fix it. Almost everybody raced around to make themselves Y2K compliant before the fast approaching deadline. Finally when the big day came, many utilities and other companies switched off their main computers and put the backup computers on work. When the clock ticked Jan 1, 2000, no major problems were reported. Almost every bank worked fine, no major power outages were reported, airplanes still flew and the whole world went on with its normal life.

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI) is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as “the study and design of intelligent agents” where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its chances of success.John McCarthy, who coined the term in 1956, defines it as “the science and engineering of making intelligent machines.”

The field was founded on the claim that a central property of humans, intelligence—the sapience of Homo sapiens—can be so precisely described that it can be simulated by a machine.This raises philosophical issues about the nature of the mind and the ethics of creating artificial beings, issues which have been addressed by myth, fiction and philosophy since antiquity.Artificial intelligence has been the subject of optimism,but has also suffered setbacks and, today, has become an essential part of the technology industry, providing the heavy lifting for many of the most difficult problems in computer science.

AI research is highly technical and specialized, deeply divided into subfields that often fail to communicate with each other. Subfields have grown up around particular institutions, the work of individual researchers, the solution of specific problems, longstanding differences of opinion about how AI should be done and the application of widely differing tools. The central problems of AI include such traits as reasoning, knowledge, planning, learning, communication, perception and the ability to move and manipulate objects.General intelligence (or “strong AI”) is still among the field’s long term goals.

AUGUST GRANT

Chapter 15

Digital Audio

Digital audio is the result of sound reproduction, using pulse-code modulation and digital signals. This includes analog-to-digital conversion (ADC), digital-to-analog conversion (DAC), storage, and transmission. In effect, the system commonly referred to as digital is in fact a discrete-time, discrete-level analog of a previous electrical analog. While modern systems can be quite subtle in their methods, the primary usefulness of a digital system is the ability to store, retrieve and transmit signals without any loss of quality.

In the book of August grant chapter 15 discusses the HOME VIDEOS. Production and distribution of video and audio programs are the two main subject of the technologies that will be discussed in this book. In the chapter home video is about the decline of the popularity of analog video systems to the digital system. The era of digital technology brings its own challenges for the user’s success analog system.
Home video is the term used for pre-recorded media are on sale or just on rent for home entertainment. The term comes from the VHS Betamax era but has been transformed into an optical disc formats like DVD, Blu-ray Disc and to a lesser extent to the methods of digital distribution as Netflix.

Home video business distributes films and television series in the form of video in various formats to the public, whether buying or renting, Most movies are now released in digital media, both medium, optical (DVD or Blu-ray) and download to replace most of the VHS (Video Home System). VCD format is still popular in some communities, although the DVD is now more public interest.
According to me personally, today is his time developing an advanced technology rapidly. The men raced to follow the time fearing the technology who leave us. So inevitably we have to follow the development of current technology. These days people want something that is practical and easy on the can. Thus scientists are competing to create a new technology to provide convenience for everyone in the world.
Ancient times each of us want to watch the movie need to cinema or watch VCDs. But the way it is still difficult dilakukakan some people, perhaps because they do not have the money then can not watch movies. Or because of other factors, perhaps some people are uncomfortable if you have to watch movies in the dark, unable to eat and drink. So that some people memiilh buy or rent a VCD and watch it at home with family, eating and drinking.
Along the development of technology, now began to be abandoned by society VCD and switch to DVD. Because DVD can be played on DVD players and computers. In terms of price, a cheap pirated DVDs began to bloom in the market. By buying or renting a DVD we can watch anytime, anywhere and with anyone wrote, that was the reason why some people choose DVD. Watching DVDs at home is more comfortable than be in theaters. As the development of technology anymore, now the film can be accessed freely via the Internet that we would call with the download. Indeed it is advancing the development of technology, more and provide convenience to the public but on one side also give negative impact to the film producers that the film could be accessed illegally by some people.