Phishing License?

I just finished my powerpoint presentation for my Interactive Media class about Phishing. In my research to finsh this presentation, I was kind of shocked at what I found out. Phishing, a way for con artists to get peoples personal information like social security numbers, credit card info, and other very important and private information, is NOT illegal. It got me thinking about why or how this could be. I dont understand how something so wrong can not be illegal. The information these phisher's get can and most likely will be used for identity theft. This does not seem morally or legally right at all. Congress is trying to decide if passing a legislation against phishing is violating the First Amendment. I believe that not passing a legislation is violating the First Amemndment. What about the rights of the people who are getting phished? They're whole lives could be on the line, with the key to so much of their lives being wrongfully taken. Who is protecting all these people who have fallen victim to these phishers? Isn't it violating them by not passing laws against the stealing of very important information. This information could be used to do many damaging and harmful things to these peoples reputations, credit, and lives. I think that Congress needs to see that phishing is most definitely wrong and they need to pass laws against it. There needs to be some kind of punishment for phishing!

Interactive Media Timeline-1960's

· 1960 - Development began on Project Xanadu
o Project Xanadu was pretty much the inspiration for the World Wide Web and for HyperCard.
§ http://www.xanadu.com/xuhome.html
· 1962 - Douglas Englebart started work on NLS
o in 1962 started work on Augment, and as part of this effort he started working on NLS (oN-Line System).
o http://www.livinginternet.com/w/wi_engelbart.htm
· 1964 - RAM is invented by John Schmidt----(actually was invented by Robert Dennard)
o One of the most significant creations in computer technology: "RAM."
§ http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/Dennard.html
· 1965 - Ted Nelson coins the terms “hypertext” and “hypermedia”.
o Nelson coined the terms in a paper to the ACM 20th national conference.
§ http://www.w3.org/WhatIs.html
· 1968 - Ted Nelson invents hypertext
o Nelson originally invented the word hypertext for "non-sequential writing”
§ http://www.w3.org/Xanadu.html#Nelson
· 1968 - Douglas Englebart gives Mother of All Demos
o Engelbart and a group of 17 researchers presented a 90-minute live public demonstration of the online system, NLS.
§ http://sloan.stanford.edu/MouseSite/1968Demo.html
· 1969 - UNIX created by Bell Labs
o UNIX came from an effort in the early 1960s to build a dependable timesharing operating system.
§ http://www.bell-labs.com/history/unix/

Texting your TV?

It has become a very common thing for television shows to encourage viewers to use their cell phones in order to interact with it. It has been more popular with shows where the nations votes are required to keep the show going. Some examples of these kinds of shows are American Idol and Americas Best Dance Crew. As we all have probably been a viewer of these types of shows at one time, we can all be witnesses to this use of texting or calling in. But now this use of interactivity is going above and beyond. There are even television shows, mostly soap operas, that allow viewers to text in what they want to see happen in the next weeks show. They can let the show know what their ideas for the plots are and what they would like to see be done and who to. The producers, writers and directors of these shows take into account what their viewers want and create the plot of the next show around what their viewers really want to see. This is amazing to me because this opens new doors for everyone. The people behind these shows are able to give the viewers exactly what they are looking for and in return are able to boost their ratings easily and quickly. And, on the other hand, viewers have more of a connection to these types of shows and are able to feel more connected to the show because it is their ideas that are being shown on TV. In this case, all viewers have the chance to be a writer of a television show. I believe its a huge step in the right direction for the interactive media world.