U.S. Government Seeks to 'Stop Online Piracy'

         This past Wednesday, a bill known as the 'Stop Online Piracy Act' was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives, in order to address the problem of pirated content being rampantly available on websites. According to an article by Gautham Nageshon on thehill.com, which was featured on iwantmendia.com and titled "House Members Unveil Stop Online Piracy Act," this bill would allow the U.S. Justice Department to obtain injunctions to prevent foreign websites from publishing this content. While most agree this is a good idea, there are other parts of the bill that cause skepticism, including the fact that the government would be able to patrol the internet and prevent companies such as advertising ones from doing business with these websites. Many see the government's regulation of the internet as overstepping its bounds, including internet industry giants Google, Yahoo, and Bloomberg. 

          On the other side of the debate, entertainment companies are thrilled by the prospect of this law, as they have been the victim of losing sales from pirated content on line, including music, movies, and games. It is now up to Congress to decide whether the case of the technology or of the entertainment companies is stronger. 

Finding Jobs on Facebook

          Countless stories have emerged in recent years about people being declined or even fired from jobs for things they have posted on Facebook; however, the social network has also been increasingly used by many to find employment. Harnessing the opportunities foreseen this avenue, the U.S. Department of Labor has decided to partner with Facebook to help Americans find jobs. According to the Chicago Tribune article "Facebook Partners with Labor Department to help Job-Seekers" by Jim Puzzanghera, the union, officially known as "The Social Jobs Partnership" was announced this Thursday by Labor Secretary Hilda Solis. Basically, this move will help centralize all jobs searches on the social network by gathering information for all hiring companies on one page. Since a 2011survey showed that 64% of companies currently use social networking to hire people, this program has strong potential.

          Solis hopes to expand the program by also partnering with other social media networks such as Twitter and LinkedIn. As explained by Facebook's Vice President for Global Public Policy, Marne Levine, the job world needs to keep up with the technology age, and this is a practical way to do it. Levine describes the new site as "a free, online job fair that can be accessed seven days a week, day or night." With the number of currently unemployed people currently being so significant, this new page seems to be a way to help Americans in the most convenient way possible.

Netflix Redeems Itself

        In a September 15 posting, I explained the controversy over Netflix's decision to separate its online streaming and DVD subscriptions, which lowered its stock price significantly. Today, according to a New York Times article by Brian Stelter titled "Netflix Abandons Plan to Rent DVDs on Qwikster," the media giant has announced that it is reversing its decision, and will instead be keeping all subscriptions under one company.    

          Today's announcement, which had a positive impact on the company's stock price in the early hours of trading, came with sobered remarks from Netflix spokesman Steve Swasey and a statement from chief execute Reed Hastings, both communicating that their original decision had the company "moving too fast." Netflix never actually created its proposed DVD company "Qwikster," though there are talks that it will keep the name and perhaps adapt it into a video game rental division in the future. For now, Netflix customers can breathe a sigh of relief that although a price increase will still take effect (the double subscription will now cost $16 a month instead of $10 a month), they will be able to manage all their subscriptions under one account. 

Little Bird in the Big Apple

        This week NYC's iconic pigeons welcomed a bird to town: the Twitter bird. On Thursday, October 6, Mayor Bloomberg and Twitter founder Jack Dorsey were present for the opening of the social network's first New York office. As explained in an article by Ben Popper on the website www.betabeat.com titled "Jack Dorsey Offers Mayor Bloomberg a Job at Twitter’s First New York Office," the new Madison Avenue office is an ideal location because according to Mr. Dorsey himself, the Big Apple is the city with the largest amount of Twitter users in the world and also the second largest amount of Twitter developers. 

        Twitter's new office opening happened during New York's 2011 Advertising Week. This was fitting because of the social network's reputation for being able to drum up enormous ad sales. In addition, the article quotes Mr. Dorsey as saying that "half a billion dollars have been invested into the Twitter ecosystem in the past year." These large sums of money associated with the company will make a good contribution to New York's economic landscape, as it plans create sales and technological engineering jobs in the city. In keeping with Mr. Dorsey's goals, it may even bring people to view New York as almost like the next Silicone Valley. Essentially, this new office opening establishes Twitter as a major corporation worthy of a place alongside other headquarters in the Big Apple, most of which have been around for a much longer time.