Technology Education, Software Piracy, and the L Essay Example For Students

Technology Education, Software Piracy, and the L Essay aw Exploratory Essays Research Papers Education, Software Piracy, and the Law Abstract This paper is intended as a primer for copyright law in the form of a short story. An elementary school teacher illegitimately copies a piece of software for educational purposes and is discovered. Issues such as the fair use doctrine, copyright law, and cyberlaw are covered. The analytical section provides a realistic legal defense for the fictional situation that drives the paper. We will write a custom essay on Technology Education, Software Piracy, and the L specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now My name is Jason Lee and I teach 6th grade mathematics at Hightstown Middle School in Hightstown, New Jersey. I cant say I particularly enjoy my job, but I still give it my best. I do enjoy spending time with my students, and any occasion when we can all laugh together is a good one. Most students who pass through school here will go on to work at low-income jobs for the rest of their lives. The few students who do seem to have potential for a bright future rarely achieve one. About five years ago, our school received a number of outdated computers and a small grant to install Internet access from the nearby Armand Hammer Corporation. We converted a classroom downstairs into our first-ever computer laboratory, and the kids couldnt get enough. Very few of them had used a computer before, and of those, few actually owned one. Even today, a lot of kids know what a computer is but lack basic knowledge about its use. Six months ago, one of our outstanding students, Jake Meyers, told me that he wanted to make websites for a living. I was enamored, and decided to help him as best as I could. We spent our after school hours for the next month learning HTML together. Jakes first website was about Pokemon cards, one of his many passions. Jake and I made a page for each of his favorite characters, found pictures of them on the Internet, and posted the site to a free server. His next idea was to create original pictures depicting battles between the Pokemon, but because our district could not afford any drawing software, we were unable to do it. When Jake began to feel discouraged, I resolved to get my hands on a professional quality program. My wife, who is a secretary at an advertising firm, was able to get a copy of Adobe Illustrator for me. I installed the program on one of the lab computers, and Jake and I once again spent hours designing his imaginary Pokemon haven. Unfortunately, the action came back to haunt me when one of my colleagues, Maureen Shea, dropped in on one of our sessions about two months ago. She asked if the school had finally allocated enough money to start upgrading the lab. I responded that no, I had borrowed the software from my wife and installed it on one computer. I didnt think much of telling Maureen, but she took the event more seriously than I imagined. As part of the hiring process, teachers are required to report any legal transgressions they observe. If the event had been ignored, Maureen was equally liable for the infraction. Acting on this fear, she reported the illegitimate software to the School Board. Within a week, I received a letter requesting a period of voluntary leave while the Board could investigate. In my initial testimony before the seven members, I related the exact story recounted here. Though they did not disagree with my actions from a practical standpoint, they asked me to prepare a legal defense. Apparently, they were legally bound to report the incident to Adobe, and I was to research copyright law for a possible hearing with the company. All of a sudden, I had a new project to work on. I spent most of my days in front of a computer in the basement after school hours. .u25f9610d4744018023216dc03c7afa45 , .u25f9610d4744018023216dc03c7afa45 .postImageUrl , .u25f9610d4744018023216dc03c7afa45 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u25f9610d4744018023216dc03c7afa45 , .u25f9610d4744018023216dc03c7afa45:hover , .u25f9610d4744018023216dc03c7afa45:visited , .u25f9610d4744018023216dc03c7afa45:active { border:0!important; } .u25f9610d4744018023216dc03c7afa45 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u25f9610d4744018023216dc03c7afa45 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u25f9610d4744018023216dc03c7afa45:active , .u25f9610d4744018023216dc03c7afa45:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u25f9610d4744018023216dc03c7afa45 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u25f9610d4744018023216dc03c7afa45 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u25f9610d4744018023216dc03c7afa45 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u25f9610d4744018023216dc03c7afa45 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u25f9610d4744018023216dc03c7afa45:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u25f9610d4744018023216dc03c7afa45 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u25f9610d4744018023216dc03c7afa45 .u25f9610d4744018023216dc03c7afa45-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u25f9610d4744018023216dc03c7afa45:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Vegetarianism Essay As for Jake, I only saw him once over the next two weeks; it seemed like I had let him down. There was nothing I could do, because I could not help him without first helping myself. After only a few minutes of research, .

Drug Use and Abuse in America Historical Analysis

Drug Use and Abuse in America Historical Analysis Introduction Drug abuse has become a major challenge to the United States of America for a very long period of time now. During the 19th century, drugs such as cocaine, morphine, and heroin were discovered and this marked the beginning of incidences of drug abuse and rampant addiction (Abadinsky, 2008). At the beginning of the 20th century, America introduced stringent rules restricting the use of illegal drugs.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Drug Use and Abuse in America: Historical Analysis specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More This action was taken due to the potential threat posed by uncontrolled drug abuse. Owing to the scope that drug dealing had taken, both domestic and international laws were enforced to regulate the growing of crops such as coca and opium (Crutchfield, 2000). These laws succeeded significantly in minimizing the impact of drug abuse. The paper discusses the history of drug abuse in the US from th e year 1950 to 2000. The Boggs Act of 1951 and the Media By the end of the World War II (WWII), drug abuse in America had decreased significantly until it was no longer a major social issue (Crutchfield, 2000). However, a few years later the problem reemerged and hence the need for immediate action. In 1951, the Boggs Act was introduced as a one of the most important drug law. It reflected the basis for effective drug legislation in America where the media perceived and reported an increase in drug abuse. This would imply that any such information resulted in the introduction of a new law to fight criminals. The new penalties would be harsher than the preceding ones and this was set for every single category of offense. During this period, the perception of increased drug abuse was drawn from the content of the media reports like in movies and television. For instance, it would be noted that there was an increased use of drugs among high school students. Subsequently, the Boggs Act of 1951 would allow the quadrupling of the penalties associated with every single offense category (Shahidullah, 2008). In particular, the application of the Boggs Act was more inclined to justifying and ensuring the prohibition of marijuana (Abadinsky, 2008). Law enforcers, while giving the rationale for the prohibition claimed that, despite being highly addictive, the drug caused insanity, increased criminality, and even death to the user. This claim, however, was quickly refuted by a renowned medical doctor who was a witness in case and he said that marijuana could produce passivity in the users. Another witness added a twist to the whole case when he said that marijuana was the major cause of heroin addiction. This, for the Boggs Act of 1951, was a sufficient rationale for the prohibition of marijuana and other related drugs (Staley, 1992). It was the perceived use of drugs by the ‘foreign enemies’ to subvert the American youth that inspired the tightening of drug l egislations.Advertising Looking for essay on history? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More 1956 and the Daniel Act The second drug law within this period was introduced in 1956 and was known as the Daniel Act which was named for the then Texas senator, Price Daniel (Shahidullah, 2008). The new law was similar to the Boggs Act of 1951 in that it employed the same formula of using perceived increase in drug use in the country. As a result, it provided the rationale for the introduction of a new criminal law. In 1956, there were reports of organized crime in the US. This was through televised Senate hearings presented by the then senator of Tennessee, Estes Kefauver (Crutchfield, 2000). This, at the end of the day, created the perception that there was increased drug use in America. That the organized criminals were in the country and were making a lot of money through drug deals. Consequently, the Daniel Act was enacted and came with harsher penalties than those of the Boggs Act in every of the offense categories. The two acts, the Boggs Act of 1951 and the Daniel Act of 1956 formed the basis upon which states formulated and passed their own versions of acts. Between 1958 and 1969, the Commonwealth of Virginia, and Virginia itself had passed laws with the heavy penalties for crimes involving the possession of marijuana, or any other prohibited drug (Staley, 1992).This was occasioned by the fact that during the 1960s, drugs such as marijuana, psychedelics, and amphetamines were the most abused drugs. In fact, the mandatory least sentence that one would serve was twenty years and the accused was not eligible for parole. This could not be compared with the sentence served by first degree murder in the state of Virginia which had mandatory sentence set at five years less while rape case attracted a mandatory least sentence of ten years. On the other hand, one convicted of selling marijuana would serve a m andatory least sentence of forty years (Crutchfield, 2000). The 1969 Dangerous Substances Act In 1969, another drug law known as the Dangerous Substances Act was introduced and was quite unique in that it did not apply the formula used by the preceding drug legislations. Just like in the previous years, there was perceived increase in drug abuse but the penalties were lowered (Staley, 1992). It was also during this time that the â€Å"taxing† mythology was dismissed. Apart from nicotine and alcohol, the 1969 Dangerous Substances Act targeted the users and sellers of all other drugs. The 1969 act classified all drugs except nicotine and alcohol under the following: the drug’s medical importance and the drug’s potential for misuse (Crutchfield, 2000). The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration The 1970s also continued to witness the explosion of the drug culture and the US government responded by developing new drug laws and specialized agencies to deal with the con tinuing problem. In 1973, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration was established to ensure that the federal laws on drugs were fully enforced (Shahidullah, 2008).Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Drug Use and Abuse in America: Historical Analysis specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More It was during this period that cocaine reentered the market. In the 1980s, there was reemergence in the use of crack which proved very addictive and its users were characterized by excessive violence. This period was also filled with perceptions of increased use of drugs. Consequently, the government declared war not only on the drugs with high potential for abuse but also on the drug users and dealers (Abadinsky, 2008). Any Progress? The fight against drugs and drug users continued to the 1990s albeit with little success. One drug law after another with revised penalties was introduced. By 1990, about a third of the minority population of the City of Baltimore alone who were male aged between 20 and 29 were being supervised by the court for drug cases (National Urban League, 1989). This proportion is significantly high in spite of the strict drug laws which had been in place for sometime then. The Year 2000 Despite the declaration of war against drugs and its users, there has been evidently minimal success in the endeavor. After about half a century, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s toughest challenge is the dynamism exhibited by organized crime (Shahidullah, 2008). In the earlier years, the criminals conducted drug deals on American soil, however, the year 2000 witnessed the emergence of highly networked and powerful drug traffickers with headquarters spread strategically in foreign countries and controlling drug business in the U.S. Therefore, it is evident that the fight against drug abuse in America has a long and complicated history and new approaches of combating the ever growing drug problems need to be identified if the war is to be won in the modern information age. References Abadinsky, H. (2008). Drug use and abuse: a comprehensive introduction (6th ed). Belmont, CA: Cengage, Thomson-Wadsworth Crutchfield, R. D. (2000). Readings in Crime: drug use and abuse (2nd ed). Pine Forge Press National Urban League (1989). The state of Black America by 1989. The State of Black  America, 13. Transaction Plc.Advertising Looking for essay on history? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Shahidullah, S. M. (2008). Crime legislations in America: laws, institutions, and  programs. University Press of America Staley, S. (1992). Understanding drug policy and the decline of America cities. Transaction Plc.

Standard Deviation as a Risk Indicator for Investment Purposes Essay

Standard Deviation as a Risk Indicator for Investment Purposes - Essay Example 41, 2003). However, over the years, many experts and researchers have also tried to point fingers at this approach trying to highlight its serious shortcomings. This paper is an attempt to capture a glance of that debate and critically analyze the use of standard deviation as a risk indicator for investment purposes. Discussion Standard deviation, in finance, is one of the widely used indicators of risk associated with any given security such as bonds, stocks, properties, commodities and others. Standard deviation allows the investors to predict and anticipate the behaviour of the security in the near future (Bhansali, pp. 34-35, 2010). Simply, standard deviation, which is square of the variance, tells the investors that how much they can expect the price of the security to deviate from its mean returns (Brase & Brase, pp. 10-12, 2011). Therefore, securities with high standard are more likely to show violate behaviour but the ones with low standard deviation are more likely to show c onsistent behaviour. Quite understandably, the former type of securities will have a great risk and later would be less risky (Wander & D'Vari, pp. 36, 2003). Investors are interested in the values of standard deviation because that helps greatly in the process of portfolio construction and management. A risk adverse investor will only select a handful of securities high standard deviation in terms of its returns and mix that up with securities having lower standard deviation in order to offset the impact of risk and enjoy stable returns (Gravetter & Wallnau, pp. 22, 2010). First, the biggest and the most important shortcoming of standard deviation as the measure of investment risk is rooted in the fact that it assumes normal distribution of values and they are poor measures of risk when it comes to asymmetric distribution. In normal distribution, the values are distributed equally to both sides of the graph; however, in any asymmetrical distribution one tail of the graph, either po sitive or negative side has greater concentration of values (Brase & Brase, pp. 10-12, 2011). Therefore, standard deviation fails to give an exact picture of the possible variation in the values. Even the father of the concept of financial engineering, Harry Markowitz has admitted, â€Å"Downside variance is more accurate than standard deviation when it comes to financial risk analysis†. This is true because not only many investing portfolios have asymmetrical distribution but their distribution is skewed positively as well (Haslett, pp. 264, 2010; Connor, Goldberg & Korajczyk, pp. 88-89, 2010). Second, like many other statistical measures of risk computation in finance, standard deviation relies heavily on historical data and there is no guarantee that historical trends will continue in the future as well (Brase & Brase, pp. 10-12, 2011). Furthermore, the period undertaken to calculate standard deviation is also of great importance. For example, the standard deviation of sto cks for the period of 2002-2006 may show lower standard deviations for most of the stocks, however, the standard deviation computed over the last five years will show higher standard deviation for many of the stocks (Gravetter & Wallnau, pp. 22, 2010; Brigham & Houston, pp. 74-75, 2009). Therefore, it