4/18/12

People have been illegally downloading and sharing music online.  The war over Internet file swapping has raged from Silicon Valley to Washington.  There were an estimated 63 million people who download music over the internet. These people had little to worry about until now.  Entertainment companies have the right to get your name, address and phone number if they have evidence your using the internet to get their copy righted works. They have permission from the US District Court in Washington. There was a case where someone was sharing 600 music files. People who also download music for personal enjoyment can also be affected.  The initial focus is on super users, the 10% of people who offer 90% of the files. Not everyone will be warned before a lawsuit is filed. Fees can run as high as $150,000 per song.  The robots aren’t perfect though. One time the robot thought someone downloaded Harry Potter but it happened to be a report. I think people should get in trouble for doing it, I mean it’s illegal just like doing drugs, but if the person doesn’t know that they’re doing wrong, they don’t deserve to suffer all the consequences. I personally get music from iTunes or other music apps where you pay for the song on my iPod. If I was a musician I wouldn’t want my music illegally shared. If my music was being illegally shared, I would be getting no profit, which I wouldn’t like. Musicians make money at concerts, they make money by selling their products, and they make money through iTunes etc. I think it is over all wrong, but if the person honestly doesn’t know they are illegally downloading the music, they shouldn’t have to suffer the consequences.

There was a case against Whitney Harper, a Texas teenager who was fined for allegedly downloading 37 songs on her computer that she didn’t pay for.  She argued that she wasn’t aware that the file sharing program was illegal. She said she thought that songs could be downloaded for free. She was charged up to $750 for each song that she had downloaded. An association of record companies had sued her. Whitney said she should be charged $200 because she didn’t know she was illegally downloading the songs. The court said that she couldn’t claim she was an innocent infringer.  The court said her argument was of irrelevant reasons. The association hired investigators who sued and/or threatened to sue 40,000 people. A lot of the people who were sued or threatened to be sued were students who couldn’t afford the fees.  I believe that the fees that were charged to people will warn others of doing the same thing. A lot of people don’t have the money to pay the massive fines. If you just bought a song for 99 cents or 1.29, it would be cheaper than ending up having to pay the massive fines.

Volusia Writes 4/9/12

Why is trust in any relationship important?
Kaitlyn Bernath

Trust is so important in life. Having trust develops a foundation, a new start, a beginning to something more that is or will come. Trust is a very important part to every relationship. Trust is one of the many things you need to have in a relationship. If you’re starting a relationship first you need to love the person, you cannot just pick someone up of the street and want to marry them, and you need to build a relationship first. Trust is included in building an actual relationship. You need love, faith, strength, and you need to be yourself.

Trust is when you can tell your spouse, or even friend, or lover etc. everything, and when I say everything I mean everything. You should be able to tell them what exactly your doing, where exactly you are, where you have been, what you are doing and what you have done. You should be able to tell them your life story including everything ion your past from birth to the current time. You shouldn’t have to even think about what you’re telling them, and all along you need to be you. You shouldn’t fall in love with someone you cannot have fun around or can’t tell everything to. You need to be with someone in whom the first spark you felt when you met them still remains. Think about it, when you are with someone who you’ve been with for 30 years, and you still feel the same way about them as you did when you first met 30 years ago, they were meant for you, and it’s most likely true love which cannot be replaced.

Trust is being able to rely on the person you love, and the assurance that they will always be with you no matter what. Trust is the first step in a relationship it’s the base on which your relationship grows. If you don’t have trust, you have nothing. Trust is an important part of any relationship, not just your relationship with your boyfriend/girlfriend or fiancé or spouse.

Trust in Friendships is also extremely important. If you don’t have a friend you can confide in completely, and tell absolutely anything to, you feel helpless. Friends you can trust are ones to encourage you and help you through everything that hurts you, and sometimes they become part of you. My best friend is someone I can confide in completely, I can tell her anything. Luckily I also have more people I can confide in, but sometimes there are things I can tell my best friend that I don’t even want to tell my mother. Friends are really important to me, and being able to trust in them is just as important. If I know I can’t trust in someone, I don’t like to be around them. If I was to stick around them and accidentally tell them something really important to me and they told someone else, I would be extremely mad.

Some other people you should be able to trust in are your family. Family is very important, it means the world to me, but if there is someone in my family I can’t trust, why would I want to be around them. Family is someone who should always be there for you and always tell you the truth. Sometimes friends will tell you things that will make you feel better but aren’t necessarily true. I believe if you want to have any kind of relationship with anyone, you need to flat out tell them the truth. It is wrong to sit there and lie to their face. Anyways, family should be the first people you go to when you have a problem. I would first go to my mom or dad, or step-mom or grandma, the people who have always been there for me.