SOPA

So, I think most of us have heard about this SOPA thing by the fact that Wikipedia was blocked all of today. As stated in the second link, the true reason behind SOPA "...is the ability of intellectual property owners (read: movie studios and record labels) to effectively pull the plug on foreign sites against whom they have a copyright claim." What are your guys opinions on this? I think it might be something interesting to talk about in class tomorrow.

I don't agree with it. I believe it is the government's way of funneling us toward giving in to their power-hungry ways. Yes, we can survive without illigellay downloaded movies and music, but what's next? If the government can just start selecting the things that we view, wouldn't they sway them toward their political bias? This has too much room for abuse.

This has a similar ring to the discussion we had on the Carr article: The fact that digital text could so easily be manipulated presents a problem. That problem falls on the fact that there are always going to be people that will abuse the system and "change" things to support their bias. The same thing is happening here, the government is manipulating and filtering the websights we visit. The intent might seem legitimate on its surface, but the fact that those with the most power are trying to delete foreign sights that only "seem" illegal presents an incredible danger that cannot be tampered with if we are to keep our freedom that this nation was so proudly founded upon. (this is the part where the background fades behind me and is replaced with a flowing American flag)

Please comment! Let me know what you think

http://online.wsj.com/article/AP2ba2a4048b36493e895aff47184b8bd4.html"

http://gizmodo.com/5877000/what-is-sopa"