107 Language skills Extras Explore 8 Big brother is watching you Across cultures: Piracy and intellectual property Look at the images and the news headlines. What do you think they are about? Read the whole news items. Which do you think is the most or least serious offence? a Reading 30 b Group jailed for bogus software licences Of cials have arrested three women and two men, and have seized 50 computers in a crackdown on illegal software licenses. A Illegal streaming to be punished with internet cancellation e government today proposed new laws to stop illegal streamers of lms and sport events. ose found streaming copyrighted material could have their internet connection cut o . B Oil Company faces copyright charges A court in the US has found an oil company guilty of encouraging its employees to publish research articles from scientific journals on the company’s website without paying royalty fees. The oil giant may be liable to pay damages to the owners of the material for breaching copyright. C Which of these should be allowed? Say why or why not and under what circumstances. 1 Using software applications without a licence. 4 Copying scientific or academic articles. 2 Watching football on an illegal stream. 5 Streaming films without paying for them. 3 Uploading copyrighted videos to YouTube. In pairs, research one of the activities in 31a and present your results in class. Consider these questions. 1 What is the legal situation in Austria? 3 Is it considered acceptable in public opinion? 2 How widespread is the activity? What are the positive sides to the increase in free information? In pairs, research the rise of freeware and open source software, or information sources such as Wikipedia. Speaking 31 a b c Explore speaking 1: Copyright regulations Topic area: Communication and the media Focus: Copyright Situation: You are a member of your school’s English-language debating club. Today’s topic is Copyright regulations – a thing of the past? Individual long turn (4–5 minutes): You have agreed to give the opening talk at the club meeting. Look at the images and the news items again and: ■■ talk about copyright regulations in general. ■■ discuss your generation’s attitude towards copyright. ■■ evaluate what should be allowed and say why. 32 Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentum des Verlags öbv
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