How secure are ownership rights on the Internet?

Zack Whittaker’s blog presents some thoughts about, “Why young people pirate.”  Zack brings up some good points about ease of access via the Internet.  Certainly, a little creativity and determination most Internet users can find about any info.  From personal family experience, I agree that young people are not necessarily cognizant of copyright infringements.  The school systems and some families are talking to their children about the ‘bullying’ on social media sites, but copyright infringement is not the foremost topic.  Perhaps, understanding ownership rights in an Internet world where data is often readily available and understanding ‘legal talk’ can be quite nebulous to most of us!  There certainly is prevalent sharing of music, games, videos, etc., among friends; copyrights may never cross their minds.  After all, YouTube shows videos all the time.  The rule is: this does not make a difference as to the law. Yet the prevalence of occurrences may easily hide the need for awareness of copyright infringements, especially with current generations who grew up with the computer as if it were the telephone!

Interestingly, I found the policy of Indiana University set a $50 fine per infringement notification debited to the students account.  If I understand the psychological concept of punishment – the punishment will diminish the undesired behavior, but not necessarily eliminate that behavior.  Of course, ‘being found’, does not mean that lightening will strike a second time; just change the approach!  One can bring to mind another repeat behavior, motor vehicle tickets that continue their behavior beyond the first occurrence.  The idea is that any unacceptable behavior would stop after the first punishment.  On the other hand, the ubiquitous sharing of many files the individuals are not as simple to track as the commercial entities.

Indiana University - What happens if I receive a copyright infringement notice, and how can I avoid it?  http://kb.iu.edu/data/ahmf.html

Zack Whittaker. Why young people pirate (Pssst: It's not just about money)

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/igeneration/why-young-people-pirate-pssst-its-not-just-about-money/7581?tag=mantle_skin;content