BBC News School Report @ LCS

How many times have you ever used, taken or created something that is not yours? Well a survey has stated that 5/5 people have taken something that wasn’t there’s. Lots of crimes have been made illegal things in the last 5 years such as using a Wi-fi or hotspot that you do not own. Of course using a wi-fi free of charge is very tempting but it can also be illegal. Surveys have shown that a staggering 7/9 people have used a hotspot without knowing passwords or owners names. If you are caught committing this crime you could be fined up to £200 or locked away for up to 2 years. If you do feel the need to connect to a hotspot then there are ways of doing it safely and legally. If the hotspot starts with HTTPS then this implies the owner has unlocked it and made it safe for public access.

Did you know that singing happy birthday in public can also be known as copyright? Warnerbros has created a new law that if one is caught singing “happy birthday” they could be sued for up to £500. Although the song is extremely catchy and you probably want to embarrass your friend you may not be able to buy them a present with such a large fine. If you are going to sing, do not do it around the police, do not provoke them into suing you!

Have you ever stolen a sweet from the pick ‘n’ mix stall? Well new security cameras are being added to supermarket pick ‘n’ mix, as over 6/7 people have said they have eaten a sweet off the floor or from around the stall. Depending on the amount of stolen products there is your legal punishments range from restitution and court-ordered counselling to imprisonment. Although stealing a sweet is incredibly tempting but you should probably just wait ten minutes until you buy it!

Downloading songs (you may already know that) is illegal, but it may be a lot worse than you think as many websites and apps are being deleted as it is extremely hard to track millions of people on one app. But it is becoming easier for the police to delete apps. Mp3, songs pk and music addict are all illegal apps that will be becoming inaccessible in the next year as lots of music writers are suing them for copyright. If you are doing this then you will need to stop very soon, the penalty this year is now £20,000. It is not very expensive to download legal music online from the app store, iCloud etc. 3/ 4 people have claimed they have downloaded music on these illegal websites.

All these felonies can result you to become in great debt and could even maybe ruin your innocent life. Be aware of what you are doing and be careful of your actions.