SOPA

SOPA stands for Stop Online Piracy Act, which was a Bill that was meant to prohibit and regulate online piracy. It would slow down illegal downloads and would broaden law enforcement’s ability to impose punishment on those who download illegally. The act would prohibit ISP’s from allowing access to websites that make copyrighted material accessible. The maximum penalty for people who broke the law would be raised to five years. Also, this law would mean that search engines and providers (based in the U.S.) take away access to certain websites, or take away services from those sites. International website hosts would not have to obey this law, obviously.

When this Bill first surfaced, people felt that it violated their first amendment rights. Many people were One clear problem with SOPA is how much copyrighted material is worth the blocking of a domain? Will SOPA allow blogs commenting on copyrighted music or a book to be blocked? Facebook and Twitter posts? According to SOPA the Attorney General would decide what fell under the policy and what does not.

In my opinion, the Bill would do more harm than good and people would lose out on their use of the Internet and the limitations. Although, I do not think it is far-fetched to want to curb the transfer of pirated and copyrighted materials. I mean someone is creating it and one can argue that they do deserve credit, or payment. I think it comes down to accessibility in the end. If people can access something for free rather than paying for it, that’s what they will download. SOPA can attempt to prevent that, but I think it will not be passed when it comes to vote.