Page 423 - Introduction to Electronic Commerce and Social Commerce

References 411

other decentralized peer-to-peer file- sharing websites, which Sources: Based on Stone (2011), Protalinski (2016), en.
have flourished in filling the enormous global demand for P2P wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pirate_Bay and medlibrary.org
file sharing. TPB has plenty of defenders. In 2014, the support- (both accessed April 2016).
ers of TPB’s jailed founder planned an online campaign to
bring more attention to his situation. Questions
All along, file-sharing technology has been one step ahead 1. Compare TPB’s legal problems to those of Napster between
of enforcement. Since some countries block access to TPB, 2000 and 2005, and to those of Kazaa (file- sharing com-
there are several proxy URLs now that provide indirect panies).
access to TPB website. 2. Debate the issue of freedom of speech on the Internet
Despite losing its November 2010 appeal, TPB has kept against the need to protect intellectual property.
growing. In 2011, TPB’s founders launched a new website, 3. What is The Pirate Bay’s business model? What are its
called IPREDator, offering IP address anonymity to regis- revenue sources? (Find more information; start with
tered users by tunneling traffic into a secure server, which Wikipedia.)
reassigns fake IP addresses to registered users so that they 4. Explore the international legal aspects of this case. Can
may access TPB or other BitTorrent tracking sites on the one country persuade another country to introduce stricter
Web for file sharing without revealing their true IP addresses. laws?
Although TPB continues to thrive today as one of the most 5. Read the Stone (2011) article and identify all the mea-
popular websites on the Internet, many countries are enact- sures used to battle piracy of live sporting events. Which
ing new stricter copyright protection laws aimed directly at of these measures can be used in The Pirate Bay case?
stopping this illegal activity. Note that Facebook blocks all Which cannot? Why?
shared links to TPB in both public and private messages 6. Find the status of the TPB website.
(however, TPB does have a Facebook page). In 2012, a UK
court ordered a blockade on TPB in the UK because of its
violation of copyright law (see Dragani 2012). Some coun- ONLINE FILES
tries are allowing access to TPB. For example, in 2014, the
Netherlands court ordered the ban on TPB lifted (see bbc. Available at ecommerce-introduction-textbook.com
com/news/technology-25943716).
In 2012, The Pirate Bay, to protect itself from raids, moved W12.1 Application Case: The Rise and Fall of Kozmo.com
its operation from physical servers to the cloud. Serving its W12.2 Application Case: The Success Story of E-Choupal
users from several cloud hosting providers makes it impossi- W12.3 Framework for Ethical Issues
ble to raid because there are no physical locations; the site is
more portable and thus makes it more difficult to shut down.
Other benefits include reducing downtime, ensuring better
uptime, and cutting costs (see Van Der Sar 2012). REFERENCES
Pirate Bay now uses many proxy sites and torrents. It is
Adobe. “Going Global in a Social World: Promoting Global Brands
well and alive (Protalinski 2016).
Using the Facebook Page Structure.” A white paper by Adobe
Systems Inc., #91069096, March 2012. marketingpedia.com/
Marketing-Library/Social%20Media/Adobe_Going_Global_
Discussion Social_World.pdf (accessed April 2016).
AIIA. Greening Your Business Through Technology, (an e-Book).
Section 4.3.1 case study: Telstra-Cost-Benefit Analysis Calculators
The Pirate Bay is one of a multitude of websites that special- (Business Innovation). November 2009, Download at witsa.org/
izing in pirated and counterfeit content. The Pirate Bay does news/newsletter_Q210/img/AIIA_GreenIT_eBook.pdf
(accessed April 2016).
not host content, in contrast to sites, which allow people to Andrews, L. I Know Who You Are and I Saw What You Did: Social
upload videos, included pirated ones. The Pirate Bay only
Networks and the Death of Privacy. Florence, MA: Free Press,
provides links to possible illegal downloads. This strategy 2012.
did not help the site much in its legal battles. Bach, J. “Telus International and Ortsbo Deliver Real-Time Language
The Pirate Bay case is only one part of a much broader Translation for Online Chat Customer Service.” Telus International
issue of protecting intellectual property on the Internet. An Blog, August 29, 2013. smallcapinvestorblog.agoracom.com/ir/
intertainment/forums/discussion/topics/584386-telus-
interesting related issue is the hosting of content by sites international- and-ortsbo-deliver-real-time-language-
such as YouTube, which is more complicated. translation-for-online/messages/1833296 (accessed May 2016).
Note that one aspect of this case is that the U.S. govern- Bailey, M. Complete Guide to Internet Privacy, Anonymity & Security.
2nd ed. Delhi, India: Nerel Online, 2015.
ment is pushing the Swedish government to take a stronger Baldwin, C. “Will Aldi Justify Its Move into E-commerce?” Essential
stand against pirating. Retail, September 28, 2015.