I’m sure many of you have heard of the SOPA Act Congress is currently considering. The stop internet piracy act would ultimately result in most of the internet being censored. The point of this act is apparently to “protect American copyrighted material against piracy and counterfeiting.” Dozens of popular websites such as Facebook and Tumblr would be accused of “facilitating” the spread of pirated material if one of their users posted some form of copyrighted material. The attorney generals office would then target these websites and force internet service providers to block access. Search engines would be forced to block links to offensive websites as well as prevent these sites from receiving any online payments by sending termination notices to their payment processors, without a court order. In other words, We’re doomed.
The drive to push SOPA comes from the MPAA (motion picture association of America). Michael O’Leary, the vice president of the MPAA, claims this bill is mainly about jobs. According to him, without SOPA, millions of Americans associated with the production of movies will lose their jobs. Critics claim the passing of this bill will transform America into a “repressive regime”, strangle free speech on the internet, harm our economic competitiveness, and ultimately betray the constitution.
-Kevin Soares
