Internet Piracy Bill in Trouble
(from:www.freeeslmaterials.com)
Several prominent websites like Wikipedia and Reddit went 'dark' on Wednesday to protest against the proposed anti-piracy legislation called SOPA (the Stop Online Piracy Act). Many other sites oppose SOPA but did not “go dark” in Wednesday’s 24-hour protest. These include Mozilla (owner of the Firefox web browser), Facebook, eBay and Google. A similar bill in the US Senate, the Protection of Intellectual Property Act (PIPA) would allow U.S. copyright holders to get court orders against foreign websites that steal from them. Sites that abuse copyright would not be able to use many online advertising networks or credit card services. It is now doubtful the bill will get the support of the sixty senators it needs in a crucial vote on Tuesday, January 24th.
The entertainment, pharmaceutical and fashion industries strongly support the bills. They lose billions of dollars every year to copyright violators. Internet companies oppose the bills, saying they will lead to censorship that would damage the Internet by discouraging new online start-ups. A letter to Congress signed by 130 technology entrepreneurs and executives expressed their concerns. It said SOPA and PIPA would "hurt economic growth and chill innovation in legitimate services that help people create, communicate, and make money online". Wikipedia has said it would continue the fight. It declares on its front page: "We're not done yet." It also said: “More than 162 million people saw our message asking if you could imagine a world without free knowledge.”
TASKS FOR THE ARTICLE
Ex.1. READING:Read and translate the article
Ex.2. ARTICLE QUESTIONS: Look back at the article and write down some questions you would like to ask the class about the text.
- Share your questions with other classmates / groups.
- Ask your partner / group your questions.
Ex.3. DISCUSSION:Talk about the online piracy in pairs and share your findings.
Ex.4. CHAT: In pairs/groups, decide which of these words and expressions from the article are most interesting and which are boring:
Intellectual / property / prominent / Wikipedia / piracy / web browser / copyright / doubtful / senators / entertainment / industries / entrepreneurs / economic growth
Ex.5. WRITING ON INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY: Complete this table with your partner(s). Change partners and share what you wrote. Change and share again.
| Copyrighted | How bad is pirating it? | How do we protect it? |
| songs | ||
| movies | ||
| software | ||
| books | ||
| games | ||
| operating systems |
Ex.6. EXCHANGING OPINIONS:Students A strongly believe it cannot be stopped;
Students B strongly believe it can. Change partners again and talk about your conversations.
Ex.7. INTERNET:What are the worst things about the Internet? Rank them and share your rankings with your partner. Put the best at the top. Change partners and share your rankings again.
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Ex.8.WRITING ON COPYRIGHT:Spend one minute writing down all the words you associate with the word ‘copyright’. Share your words with your partner(s) and talk about them. Together put the words into different categories.
Ex.9. TRUE / FALSE:Guess if a-h below are true (T) or false (F) .
| a. | A bill has been announced in the U.S. to protect online pirates. | T / F |
| b. | Several famous websites protested against piracy. | T / F |
| c. | The eBay site switched off for 24 hours to protest. | T / F |
| d. | Many credit card services are being targeted as being pirates. | T / F |
| e. | The anti-piracy bill doesn’t have a good chance of being passed. | T / F |
| f. | Internet site owners believe an anti-piracy bill would be censorship. | T / F |
| g. | 1,200 tech executives signed a letter to the U.S. Congress. | T / F |
| h. | Wikipedia said on its website that it hasn’t finished protesting. | T / F |
Ex.10. SYNONYM MATCH: Match the following synonyms from the article.
| 1. | prominent | a. | law |
| proposed | b. | offenders | |
| 3. | legislation | c. | unsure |
| 4. | allow | d. | mistreat |
| 5. | abuse | e. | worries |
| 6. | doubtful | f. | leading |
| 7. | crucial | g. | let |
| 8. | violators | h. | states |
| 9. | concerns | i. | vital |
| 10. | declares | j. | suggested |
Ex.11. PHRASE MATCH:Match left and right (Sometimes more than one choice is possible.)
| 1. | Several prominent | a. | browser |
| protest against the proposed anti- | b. | done yet | |
| 3. | owner of the Firefox web | c. | abuse copyright |
| 4. | would allow U.S. copyright holders | d. | websites |
| 5. | Sites that | e. | piracy legislation |
| 6. | It is now | f. | violators |
| 7. | copyright | g. | without free knowledge |
| 8. | hurt economic growth and | h. | to get court orders |
| 9. | We're not | i. | doubtful |
| 10. | imagine a world | j. | chill innovation |
Ex.12.GAP FILL:Fill inthe gaps using the words on the right.
| Several (1) ___ websites like Wikipedia and Reddit went 'dark' on Wednesday to protest against the (2) ____ anti-piracy legislation called SOPA (the Stop Online Piracy Act). Many other sites (3) ___ SOPA but did not “go dark” in Wednesday’s 24-hour protest. These include Mozilla (owner of the Firefox web (4) ____), Facebook, eBay and Google. A similar bill in the US Senate, the Protection of Intellectual Property Act (PIPA) would allow U.S. copyright holders to get (5) ___ orders against foreign websites that steal from them. Sites that (6) __ copyright would not be able to use many online advertising networks or credit card services. It is now (7) __ the bill will get the support of the sixty senators it needs in a crucial (8) ___on Tuesday, January 24th. | doubtful proposed court vote prominent oppose abuse browser |
| The entertainment, pharmaceutical and fashion industries (9) ___support the bills. They lose billions of dollars every year to (10) ___ violators. Internet companies oppose the bills, saying they will lead to (11) ___ that would damage the Internet by discouraging new online (12) ___-ups. A letter to Congress signed by 130 technology entrepreneurs and executives (13) ___ their concerns. It said SOPA and PIPA would "hurt economic growth and (14) ___ innovation in legitimate services that help people create, communicate, and make money online". Wikipedia has said it would continue the fight. It (15) ___ on its front page: "We're not done yet." It also said: “More than 162 million people saw our message asking if you could imagine a world (16) ____ free knowledge.” | chill strongly censorship expressed start copyright without declares |
Ex.13. READING:Read and fill in the gaps
___ like Wikipedia and Reddit went 'dark' on Wednesday to protest against the ___ legislation called SOPA (the Stop Online Piracy Act). Many other sites oppose SOPA but did not “go dark” in Wednesday’s 24-hour protest. These include Mozilla (___ web browser), Facebook, eBay and Google. A similar bill in the US Senate, the Protection of Intellectual Property Act (PIPA) would allow U.S. ____ get court orders against foreign websites that steal from them. Sites that abuse copyright would not be able to use many ___ or credit card services. It is now doubtful the bill will get the support of the sixty senators it needs ___ on Tuesday, January 24th.
The entertainment, pharmaceutical and fashion ____ the bills. They lose billions of dollars every year to copyright violators. Internet companies oppose the bills, saying they will ____ that would damage the Internet by discouraging new online start-ups. A letter to Congress signed by 130 technology entrepreneurs and executives ____ . It said SOPA and PIPA would "hurt economic growth and chill innovation in legitimate services that ____ , communicate, and make money online". Wikipedia has said it would continue the fight. It ___ page: "We're not done yet." It also said: “More than 162 million people saw our message asking if you could imagine a world ____.”
Ex.14 WORD SEARCH: Look in your dictionary / computer to find collocations, other meanings, information, synonyms … for the words ‘online’ and ‘piracy’.
| online | piracy |
- Share your findings with your partners.
- Make questions using the words you found.
- Ask your partner / group your questions.
Ex.15. TEST EACH OTHER: Look at the words below. With your partner, try to recall how they were used in the text:
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Ex.16. LANGUAGE: MULTIPLE CHOICE:Fill in the gaps choosing from A to D.
Put the correct words from the table below in the above article.
Several (1) ____ websites like Wikipedia and Reddit went 'dark' on Wednesday to protest against the (2) ____ anti-piracy legislation called SOPA (the Stop Online Piracy Act). Many other sites (3) ____ SOPA but did not “go dark” in Wednesday’s 24-hour protest. These include Mozilla (owner of the Firefox web browser), Facebook, eBay and Google. A (4) ____ bill in the US Senate, the Protection of Intellectual Property Act (PIPA) would allow U.S. copyright holders to get court orders against foreign websites that steal (5) ____ them. Sites that abuse copyright would not be able to use many online advertising networks or credit card services. It is now doubtful the bill will get the support of the sixty senators it needs in a (6) ____ vote on Tuesday, January 24th.
The entertainment, pharmaceutical and fashion industries (7) ____ support the bills. They lose billions of dollars every year to copyright violators. Internet companies oppose the bills, saying they will lead (8) ____ censorship that would damage the Internet by discouraging new online (9) ____-ups. A letter to Congress signed by 130 technology entrepreneurs and executives expressed their concerns. It said SOPA and PIPA would "hurt economic growth and (10) ____ innovation in legitimate services that help people create, communicate, and make money online". Wikipedia has said it would continue the fight. It (11) ____ on its front page: "We're not done yet." It also said: “More than 162 million people saw our message asking if you could imagine a world without (12) ____ knowledge.”
| 1. | (a) | promenade | (b) | promiscuous | (c) | prompt | (d) | prominent |
| 2. | (a) | proposal | (b) | proposed | (c) | proposition | (d) | proposing |
| 3. | (a) | oppose | (b) | propose | (c) | against | (d) | anti- |
| 4. | (a) | same | (b) | simpleton | (c) | similar | (d) | simile |
| 5. | (a) | for | (b) | of | (c) | from | (d) | by |
| 6. | (a) | crux | (b) | crucial | (c) | cruciate | (d) | crucible |
| 7. | (a) | strongly | (b) | strength | (c) | strong | (d) | strongest |
| 8. | (a) | a | (b) | by | (c) | of | (d) | to |
| 9. | (a) | begin | (b) | start | (c) | commence | (d) | launch |
| 10. | (a) | cold | (b) | air-condition | (c) | freezing | (d) | chill |
| 11. | (a) | whispers | (b) | fonts | (c) | declares | (d) | orates |
| 12. | (a) | free | (b) | freely | (c) | freedom | (d) | frees |
Ex.17. ONLINE PIRACY SURVEY:Write five questions about online piracy. Do this in pairs. Each student must write the questions on his / her own paper. Change the partner.
- Make mini-presentations on your findings.
Ex.18. ONLINE PIRACY DISCUSSION:
STUDENT A’s QUESTIONS
| a) | What did you think when you read the headline? |
| b) | What springs to mind when you hear the word ‘piracy’? |
| c) | What do you think about what you read? |
| d) | Do you think intellectual copyright should be protected? |
| e) | Do you ever download things that you shouldn’t? |
| f) | If no one pays for music, games and movie, people won’t make them, or won’t make them as good. What do you think of this? |
| g) | Do you think SOPA and PIPA will get passed? |
| h) | What do you think of Wikipedia’s action in “going dark” for 24 hours? |
| i) | What punishment should sites that host or share pirated stuff? |
| j) | What do you think of the closure of the site Megaupload.com? |
STUDENT B’s QUESTIONS
| a) | Did you like reading this article? |
| b) | It is likely the actions of Internet companies like Wikipedia will defeat the bills in Congress. Is this kind of power in the hands of sites good? |
| c) | How can the entertainment and fashion industries better protect their copyrighted material (movies, songs, etc.)? |
| d) | What punishment should be given to copyright violators? |
| e) | So many people nowadays think downloading is a way of life and don’t see the illegality of it. Is it too late to go back? |
| f) | Would a bill protecting intellectual copyright lead to greater censorship? |
| g) | Would the proposed bills “hurt economic growth and chill innovation”? |
| h) | Is charging 99 cents for songs and similalry low prices the way to go ? |
| i) | What would a world without free knowledge be like? |
| j) | What questions would you like to ask Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia’s boss? |
Ex.19.WRITING: Write about online piracy for 10 minutes. Correct your partner’s paper.
ADDITIONAL TASKS
1. INTERNET: Search the Internet and find out more about online piracy. Share what you discover with your partner(s) at the next lesson.
2. WRITING:Write a magazine article about the SOPA bill. Include imaginary interviews with people who are for and against it. Read what you wrote to your classmates at the next lesson. Write down new words and expressions you hear from your partner(s).
3. LETTER:Write a letter to an intellectual property expert. Ask him/her three questions about online piracy. Give him/her three of your opinions on it.
Unit V