S.O.P.A.

As you probably already know, there is a bill currently being reviewed by the U.S. Congress called the S.O.P.A. bill. It stands for the Stop-Online-Piracy-Act, and was created by large movie corporations that are losing money from piracy. Piracy is when you illegally take information like movies and music to use without paying for it. While Piracy is an issue, the S.O.P.A. bill is not the solution. This bill will change the internet. It will give large companies the power to shut down websites and videos that aren’t actually causing any harm. Many internet companies such as Google, Facebook, and Wikipedia realize this and are leading the public with a charge against this bill.

On January 18^th, 2012, these companies led an internet wide black-out, protesting against S.O.P.A. Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, was one of the supporters. He wrote on his Facebook page that S.O.P.A. was “Poorly thought out” and encouraged readers to contact their local representatives. He said that “The internet is the most powerful tool we have for creating a more open and connected world. We can't let poorly thought out laws get in the way of the internet's development.”

The internet companies believe that this bill will cause censorship throughout the internet. Much of the public agrees with this. If a small video uses a little bit of music, the recording company has the right to shut it down. I don’t believe this is right. Internet video watching sites like YouTube already have a top notch security system against copyright infringement. This bill will obviously do more harm than good. If it is passed, entire sites can be shut down from just a single copyright violation.

I believe that the bill should be rejected in congress. It breaks the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights. “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” S.O.P.A. would threaten our rights as Americans. We should have the authority to use the information we want as long as it is in fair use. Obviously, S.O.P.A. is a terrible idea, and I urge everyone reading this to take action immediately by contacting your local representative.