6 THE DAILY VOICE, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2012 EDITOR JEREMY SALLY Downloading crackdown Is no downer fter reading the article in yester- day’s Vancouver Sun about online piracy, I’m still going to download movies off the Internet illegally. The article warns people that after a recent court decision, internet providers are forced to release subscriber names, which means Canadians are liable for illegal downloading and statutory damages of up to $5,000. “The door is closing. People should think twice about download- ing content they know isn’t proper,” said Barry Logan, managing director of Canipre, the Montreal- based forensic software company in an interview with the Vancouver Sun. According to Logan, his company has collected files on a million Canadians who have downloaded pirated content. Ask me if I care. While some of this information is intimidating, it doesn’t scare me enough to pay $15 for an overpriced movie at the theatre. Unless it’s with a hot date, I feel it’s a rip off and I refuse to do it. Another problem I have with illegal downloading regards a court decision involving a Burnaby movie production company. According to the article in the Sun, the federal government, forced several Internet providers to provide names and addresses of subscribers whose IP addresses were related to illegal downloading. What a lot of people don’t realize is that IP addresses are not absolute proof. I might not have any idea that the download ever took place until I get a letter about possible court action. A lot of times people steal Internet from other users. If lam not familiar with how to secure my Internet connection so that it’s not public, any of my neighbours can steal my wireless. If they download something illegally from their computer at their home but use my wireless Internet, it will show up under my IP address. While I understand some action must be taken, the IP address linkage is not satisfactory. Just because my IP address was linked to an illegal download doesn’t mean that I personally completed it. OPINION RYAN BANAGAN We want to hear from you Did we get a fact wrong? Tell us. Got a different point of view? Write to us. Problems with something we've said? Let us know. Journalism instructor Nicholas Read oversees The Voice. Email him at nread@langara.be.ca Amanda Todd's death — we all share in the blame e killed Amanda Todd. She would have been 16 today, but she killed herself because she couldn’t take the level of bullying she had to endure after being immortalized in an Internet picture exposing herself. All the bullying initiatives and bylaws in the world won’t change the fact we adults are a bunch of hypocrites. We wonder why Todd lifted her shirt for a boy, who turned out to be a man, as we head down to the Lions game where husbands watch the scantily clad young cheerleaders and daughters look on. Iam a mother of four teenaged sons. I’ve talked to them a lot about Amanda Todd. They tell me though bullying programs are well known at their high school, girls who sleep around are still called sluts. They weren’t sure what a boy like that would be called. I have heard parents say though it is very sad she died, Todd must have had problems already to commit suicide. In newspaper articles it is often mentioned she was in counseling and took medica- tion. That is how we make our- OPINION. selves feel better JENNIFER — vulnerable girl couldn’t take THUNCHER incessant bullying. Not to worry, the rest of us strong people are. I can guarantee with 100 per cent certainty, had social media existed in the 1980s when I was a teenager, I would have been an Amada Todd. Teenaged girls do things to get noticed the only way they know how. They always have. They do what they see the rest of us adults do. We talk at dinner with our sons about not exploiting the girls they know while we ignore the porn they download on their laptops. As mothers we talk to our daughters about dressing appropri- ately and then sit down religiously to watch, and talk trash about, The Real Housewives of wherever. Bullying initiatives do nothing to change the real issue. We’re a culture of mixed messages. Young people are angry and take it out on each other. They’re confused. Can we blame them? Hey, quid Witlne, Wed cot! Nake me B2 Ditch the B-Line and cut a trench own Canada Line. The route is believed to be the busiest bus route in North America. We're asking smog-spewing diesel buses to shoulder over 50,000 passengers a day. Numbers that already exceed those of many light-rail systems. Five stops in the middle of the route are each equivalent to a Metrotown Station in terms of population density. We must also remember the B-Line serves UBC — the single- largest destination in Vancouver that 54,000 students attend. Yet the province wants to attract even more. How can a world-renowned univer- sity count on new attendees if they have to skip two buses to just be late to class? Opponents to rail lines say that more buses can be added. But already, the B-Line’s peak frequency is two-and-a-half minutes between [: time Broadway implemented its each bus. Factor in that parking during these hours is forbidden For proof, consider the over 13,000 people in 2010 that were left hanging when a bus passed them by, because it was too full. That number will only stand to rise, if Vancouver continues to promote densifi- cation, as well as the use of fewer vehicles. Remem- ber, those were only the people that complained. The animosity towards any underground rail network stems from the prob- lems faced by businesses along the Cambie corridor during the Canada Line’s construction. Business owners were lied to when the government said the construction wouldn’t use cut-and-cover, which OPINION JEREMY SALLY involves digging up roads that customers park on. If businesses are treated respect- fully, the public will be supportive. But what about an alternative method like a rail system on the corridor? Proponents of light rail, LRT, claim that this method will not involve the cut-and-cover method that inconvenienced Cambie Street businesses during the Canada Line’s construction. But this isn’t true. Underneath Broadway lies a trunk sewer, which collects waste from smaller, tribu- tary sewers. Light rail would require the removal and relocation of this sewer, via cut-and-cover. Therefore, the city and TransLink may as well build an underground line. Vancouver needs to abandon the “99 Free Line.” But we must ensure that businesses don’t feel like they’ve been passed by. The Voice is published by Langara College's journalism department. Editorial opinions are those of the staff and are independent of views of the student government and administration. We welcome letters to the editor. All letters must be signed. They may be edited for brevity. Names may be withheld in special cases, but your letter must include your name and phone number. HOW TO REACH US PHONE 604-323-5396 FAX 604-323-5398 E-MAIL thevoice@langara.be.ca DROP-IN Room A226 Langara College There is a mailbox at the entrance to the journalism rooms. SNAIL MAIL The Voice 100 West 49th Ave. Vancouver, B.C. VSY 226 WEBSITE wwwlangara.bc.ca/voice EDITORIAL STAFF THIS ISSUE: MANAGING EDITOR/ PAGE 6 Jeremy Sally PAGE EDITORS PAGE 1 Michelle Gamage PAGE 2 Ross Armour PAGE 3 Carly Rhianna Smith PAGE 4 Brandon Reid PAGE 5 Audrey McKinnon PAGE 7 Alex Skerdzhev PAGE 8 Lev Jackson WEB EDITORS Ley Doctor Ashley Viens REPORTERS Ryan Banagan Judy Chem Steven Chua Katja De Bock Anne Ellison Gillian Hames Kevin Hampson Tanya Hill Richard Hodges Brandon Kostinuk Jules Knox Michael Letendre Jana Minor Simone Pfeiffer Samuel Reynolds Bronwyn Scott Jennifer Thuncher Contact us: Our blog at www.langara- voice.com Twitter at @langaraVoice Youtube at VoiceLangara flicker at Langara Voice