Thursday, October 4, 2012

Thursday, October 4th


Objective:  Understand how Security, Liberty and 
Equality were defined in the Revolutionary Era and how
these ideals influenced our form of government.

Starter:
The goal of the starter is to get you to start thinking about the ways in which
the three ideals of Security, Liberty and Equality oftentimes conflict.  It is
hard to balance these ideals in pursuit of a just society that looks after
everyone's interests. 

1. Read this description of SOPA from our beloved Wikipedia:

The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) is a United States bill  to expand the ability of U.S. 
law enforcement to fight online trafficking in copyrighted intellectual property and 
counterfeit goods. Provisions include the requesting of court orders to bar advertising 
networks from conducting business with infringing websites, and search engines from 
linking to the websites, and court orders requiring Internet service providers to block 
access to the websites. The law would expand existing criminal laws to include
unauthorized streaming of copyrighted content, imposing a maximum penalty of five years
in prison.

Proponents of the legislation state it will protect the intellectual-property market and 
corresponding industry, jobs and revenue, and is necessary to bolster enforcement of 
copyright laws, especially against foreign-owned and operated websites. Claiming flaws in 
present laws that do not cover foreign-owned and operated websites

Opponents state the proposed legislation threatens free speech and innovation, and 
enables law enforcement to block access to entire internet domains due to infringing 
content posted on a single blog or webpage.  Library associations have expressed 
concerns that the legislation's emphasis on stronger copyright enforcement would expose 
libraries to prosecution. 

2. As a class, we'll watch Phillip DeFranco's take on this issue:
http://www.youtube.com/user/sxephil?feature=g-all-u

Write your response to the following in the starter section of your binders:

--> What are the arguments in favor of SOPA for Security issues? What is SOPA trying to secure?  
--> What are the arguments in opposition to SOPA for liberty issues? What liberties would SOPA
obstruct?

Agenda:

Work on your jigsaw activity!  This needs to be completed by tomorrow's class!

Homework (For details, see "homework and class notes" tab):
 Finish jigsaw activity
Rolling Stones article
Newspaper on political issue

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