Y210 Politics of the Internet

Midterm Examination

October 23, 2008

 

This exam is in two parts.  The first part is multiple choice and answers must be marked on the computer sheet.  The second part is an essay question.  The essay must be written in one or more blue books.  Be sure to write your name and student ID number at the top of the computer sheet and on all of your bluebooks.

 

Part I. Multiple Choice (30 minutes)

 

Circle the letter (a, b, c, or d) with the best answer on your examination sheets.  Then mark the corresponding letter on the computer sheet.

 

 

1.      One of Larry Lessig’s big ideas is that computer code is a form of _____.

a.       law

b.      software

c.       embedded knowledge

d.      intellectual property

 

2.      A type of software that can erase or alter the information stored on other people’s computers is called a ______.

a.       worm

b.      virus

c.       Trojan horse

d.      denial of service attack

 

3.      A program that occupies successfully more and more of the unused data storage space on computers connected to the Internet is called a _____.

a.       worm

b.      virus

c.       Trojan horse

d.      denial of service attack

 

4.       _______ had a deep and lasting influence on U.S. federal government funding of cancer-related medical research.

a.       John F. Kennedy

b.      Dwight D. Eisenhower

c.       Lyndon B. Johnson

d.      Richard M. Nixon

 

5.      Defenders of net neutrality often refer to the concept of ______.

a.       quality of service

b.      intelligent networks

c.       bandwidth hogs

d.      end-to-end architecture

 

6.      The so-called Vannevar Bush approach to science and technology in the United States focuses on governmental funding of _______ research.

a.       applied

b.      basic

c.       private

d.      Internet

 

7.      The term used for registering domain names that other individuals or companies might be willing to purchase at a later date is _____.

a.       cyber squatting

b.      piracy

c.       hacking

d.      fraud

 

8.      Jonathan Zittrain is worried that in the quest for greater security and user-friendliness, we might lose the ______ of the current Internet.

a.       appliancization

b.      flexibility

c.       generativity

d.      mobility

 

9.      The Internet is a network of _________.

a.       networks

b.      computers

c.       people

d.      business firms

 

10.  A program that resides on your computer but lets somebody else remotely control your computer is called a _________.

a.       worm

b.      virus

c.       Trojan horse

d.      denial of service attack

 

11.  A crime wherein the offender uses another individual’s legitimate personal information to commit acts of fraud or deception, typically for illicit financial gain is called ______.

a.       grand larceny

b.      copyright enfringement

c.       phishing

d.      identity theft

 

12.  Conservatives are concerned that social networking on the Internet makes it too easy for ______ to engage in ______ behavior with minors?

a.       adults, predatory

b.      Greek society members, recruiting

c.       minors, social

d.      teachers, educational

 

13.  What organizations are particularly worried about the ill effects of digital piracy on their members?

a.       the CIA and the NSA

b.      the MPAA and the RIAA

c.       the ACLU and the American Library Association

d.      the Christian Coalition and the Catholic League of Decency

 

14.  What organizations are particularly worried about the ill effects of digital pornography on their members?

a.       the CIA and the NSA

b.      the MPAA and the RIAA

c.       the ACLU and the American Library Association

d.      the Christian Coalition and the Catholic League of Decency

 

15.   _____ is not a neo-Nazi organization with a presence on the World Wide Web.

a.       World Church of the Creator

b.      Southern Poverty Law Center

c.       White Pride World Wide

d.      Volksfront

 

16.  When Internet users shut down a site by swamping it with messages that overload its servers that is called a ______.

a.       worm

b.      virus

c.       Trojan horse

d.      denial of service attack

 

17.  One of the important exceptions to the enforcement of intellectual property laws that is particularly important to educational institutions and libraries is called _____.

a.       copy wrong

b.      the creative commons

c.       fair use

d.      digital rights management

 

18.  The recording and movie industries are particularly scared of _____ technology because of the potential for quick and easy sharing of very large files over the Internet.

a.       BitTorrent

b.      client-server

c.       analog-hole

d.      flash drive

 

19.  Under the Long Tail hypothesis certain technologies make it easier for new players to enter a market because they _____.

a.       lower barriers to entry

b.      give consumers less control over which products or services to consume

c.       give copyrighted material away for free

d.      prevent piracy

 

20.  In the Supreme Court’s Betamax decision of 1984, the Court ruled that just because a consumer device could make copies of copyrighted material did not mean that the device should be outlawed.  If we make copies of copyrighted materials available for ourselves, our relatives, our students, or for library use, we are protected under the so-called ________ doctrine.

a.       piracy

b.      fair use

c.       cyber squatting           

d.      Reagan

 

21.  The audio recording, movie and video game industries have protected themselves against threats of government censorship by engaging in self-regulation via voluntary_________.

a.       rating systems

b.      contributions to industry associations

c.       sponsorship of Congressional election campaigns

d.      confessions

 

22.  An innovation that eventually overpowers an existing technology is called a ______ technology.

a.       computer

b.      cannibalistic

c.       disruptive

d.      network

 

23.  What is not a danger inherent in the use of tethered, appliancized network systems?

a.       remote reprogramming

b.      use of censors for remote surveillance

c.       the potential for censorship

d.      too much generativity

 

24.  After the creation of TCP/IP and its incorporation into the major operating systems, the invention of hypertext markup language (HTML) did the most in making everyone’s access to the Internet easier because it made _____ possible.

a.       social networking

b.      the World Wide Web

c.       the domain name system

d.      the root server system

 

25.  The first major web browser for the World Wide Web was called ______.

a.       Mosaic

b.      Internet Explorer

c.       Netscape

d.      Firefox

 

26.  Microsoft was strongly criticized for trying to eliminate Netscape as a competitor by incorporating its own browser, _______, into the Windows operating system.

a.       Mosaic

b.      Internet Explorer

c.       Netscape

d.      Firefox

 

27.  Under the DMCA and later laws, companies like YouTube are required to remove copyrighted materials using a _______ system.

a.       notice and takedown

b.      censorship

c.       voluntary

d.      proprietary

 

28.  Two companies that strongly oppose net neutrality are _____.

a.       Google and Yahoo

b.      IBM and Microsoft

c.       AIG and Goldman Sachs

d.      Verizon and Comcast

 

29.  Two organizations that strongly support net neutrality are the _______.

a.       RIAA and MPAA

b.      ACLU and Christian Coalition

c.       Democratic and Republican parties

d.      McCain and Obama presidential campaigns

 

30.  Moore’s Law says that the number of transistors capable of being placed on a chip or integrated circuit doubles every _____.

a.       year

b.      year and half

c.       decade

d.      century

 

31.  Metcalfe’s law says the value of a network for any user is ____ the number of users of the network.

a.       equal to

b.      the square of

c.       the square root of

d.      two times

 

 

 

 

 

Part II. Choose one Essay Question (30 minutes).  Write your essay in blue books.

 

  1. Why do the MPAA and the RIAA care so intensely about piracy and what have they done to prevent it?  Do you agree or disagree with their solutions?  Explain.

 

  1. Social conservatives have targeted pornography and cyber-stalking, especially as they affect children, in proposed legislation.  Review some of their proposed solutions to these problems and criticize them.  How would you deal with them?

 

  1. In his book on the Internet, Jonathan Zittrain puts forward views that do not agree with those of either net neutrality supporters or net neutrality opponents.  Explain the differences among these three sets of views and state your own position on the controversy.

 

  1. The Internet has clearly played an important role in the 2008 presidential election campaigns.  Some scholars argued that in previous years the role of the Internet in elections was much less than it is now.  What accounts for the change?

 

  1. Write an essay about the relationship between Moore’s Law and the Long Tail.