Outlash Seems to Have Stalled the Passing of SOPA/PIPA

January 22, 2012

Outlash Seems to Have Stalled the Passing of SOPA/PIPA

I’m sure a good portion of you have heard the news about SOPA and PIPA either on the news, or in a newspaper, or online.  If you haven’t heard, both of these are bills that congress is trying to pass, in order for the government to be able to censor everything that is put on the internet.  SOPA stands for stop online piracy act.  This bill is made with good intentions.  They want to be able to fully protect copyrights and ban certain websites that infringe on rights.  PIPA (protect IP act) this is the bill that would give the government the tools needed to carry out the censoring of certain websites. 

Now, with the news of these bills came serious backlash from a good portion of Americans, and some from other countries as well.  Internet users believe that these bills are infringing on their rights to freedom of speech.  On January 18th, websites (including  Google, Wikipedia, Memebase, and various others) protested the bills by shutting down for the day.  This got the attention of everyone.  People started protesting on smaller scales by writing to their senator, and spreading the word about the bills.  The passing of these bills have currently been put on hold so they can try to figure out a better way to go about protecting copyrights online. 

I wrote this not only to inform you, but also to offer my opinion on the matter.  I believe that people do have the right to protect their copyrights…. But if the person who is “infringing” on the copyright isn’t profiting from said infringement, it really should be left alone.  We do have the right to freedom of speech, and that should never be taken away in any form.  Now I know this subject has been so worn out, especially with the news of SOPA and PIPA; but the way I see it is… This is not only a national problem.  The internet is something that we share globally.  I don’t see how it is our place to change something that will affect every country.  If changes like this need to be made, they need to be talked through with every country, and every country should be in agreement.  I don’t want to be redundant with what everyone else is saying about this, but I do believe it is important to edjucate yourself.  Go read about the bill, if you don’t agree with it, do something about it. 

Kaylen

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