The internet is a modern playground for the young and the old alike. You’ll never run out of things to do nor suffer from boredom anymore. For instance, social media not only helps you connect with family and friends but lets you follow and stay updated on the lives of your favorite stars. If you are a movie buff, Youtube is home to millions of videos and films both old and new ones you can watch anytime of the day. The web is like an answered prayer to many of man’s problems. We just want to stay connected to everyone we know and the web provides that all for us.
The popularity of live streaming can’t also be denied especially during special events, sports games, movies, etc. Social media sites now also offer its users to live stream events, so you feel like a star in your own right. You can broadcast your video on the internet through any smartphone or computer, just as long as it has a working camera. You can come up with your own vlog or use it to promote your business, the possibilities are endless. With all this technology right on our fingertips, is it really doing us any good? The Internet can be used in disturbing ways such as ordinary individual live streaming their suicides and the crimes they commit. Yes, it is real and it has happened many times and again.
“Why would someone videotape themselves committing a crime? To most of us, it sounds completely ridiculous,” said Ari Waldman, associate professor and director of the Innovation Center for Law and Technology at New York Law School.
Waldman said there’s a simple explanation for why more crime is being live streamed: The technology is better and more accessible, making it easier for more people to live stream anything.
“We have more people using the tech. As a result, we have more people using it in bad ways,” he said.
The problem was acknowledged by Const. Tammy Skrabek at a news conference in Winnipeg on Tuesday, where she said officers arrested three people after someone watching the weekend live stream reported the assault to police.
“I think we are going to be seeing more of that in the future, and we are going to have, maybe, [to] put a little bit different resources now … into investigating these internet crimes and identifying suspects and ultimately arresting them,” she said.
“We are still trying to figure out how we are going to follow up these investigations.”
(Via: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/live-streamed-crime-1.4055977)
But there is also a bad side to livestreaming. The television and the film industry suffer from illegal live streaming of their shows and films and they end up losing a lot of money from cyber criminals who broadcast their shows to the public without their permission.
Pass my pirate’s eye patch, I’m off to the criminal underworld to steal from the entertainment industry. The economy will be severely damaged and people will lose their jobs because of my selfish desire to keep up with the unfolding drama on some obscure Canadian television series which has taken my fancy.
I’d happily pay for this content, in fact I’d prefer to pay for this content. But I can’t. Whatever legal channel I go to waving my credit card and three-digit security code airily dismisses my supplications.
Some viewers do not mind paying for content they want to watch while most of us want to see it for free whenever possible. However, some sites have problems with their payment system that they end up losing money instead of generating profits.
This week, seven major film and television studios were granted injunctions by an Irish court that will direct Irish internet service providers to block access to websites which stream popular television shows and films. On these websites you can watch current film and television releases without paying for them. Which is not a good thing – but then neither is preventing honest consumers from paying for content they want to watch.
Technology has drastically changed everything we know of in the world. Many things that we only see in the movies before are now the reality we live in. You don’t need to be a celebrity to flaunt your videos on the Internet. With your handy smartphone, you can livestream your activities, so your friends and followers can see it on social media for free. You can generate money from the videos you live stream but it can also be used by criminals who are lurking everywhere on the web. So, always exercise extreme caution when uploading content on the web especially if you’re into vlogging for a living.
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