Digital Ethics Book Project Reflection Format
 

The Ethics of Video Streaming Apps

Mary T McCarthy

Thursday, June 25th, 2015

http://digitalethics.org/essays/the-ethics-of-video-streaming-apps/

Video Ethics

First Impression:

I think it has something to do with video streaming's ethics.

Quote:

"a shocking 53 percent of all video was viewed on mobile devices"

Reflection Proper:

Before reading the article, I thought the the topic would be about video streaming apps show commercials like the previous articles I read regarding advertisements as theft but this one is slightly different. Video streaming apps like Hulu, Netflix, iFlix, and all the other streaming services provide video to consumers at a low cost. Some of these video streaming services are free and this poses a problem. Videos are usually paid and we question why are the streaming websites providing free services when in fact there should be cost into these for copyright or usage rights. This poses the problem of privacy. In some of the sites the system tracks ones actions as well as the videos one is watching. This may be the root of the problem because even though the said video is streamed free, these websites extract data from the users actions and use them or sometimes sell them stuff.

Many websites that do stream videos have also videos that are not real or trustworthy. Like many viral videos, some of these videos are fake and thus leading to wrong information. If they are a joke or just for laughs, it is okay, but sometimes these videos are made to look like professionals and many are swayed into thinking that the information is real.

I think there should be a moderator or an organization that keeps check on this websites, the videos that will be stream has be checked prior into posting. YouTube has check on this because they know if the music posted has a copyright or not as well as if the video has sensitive scenes. 

5 Things That I've learned:

Video streaming exists.

Hulu is a video streaming service

Netflix is a video streaming service

Air PlayIt is a no syncing video streaming service

AirVideo is a no syncing video streaming service

Crackle is a no syncing video streaming service

5 Integrative Questions:

What is ethics?

What is video streaming?

How can video streaming be ethical?

How can the government prevent wrong information being streamed?

How can the citizens be sure the government is not covering videos being streamed about the dirty works of the government?