Sopa Essay

Robert Hernandez
Ms. Nancy Fletcher
ENC 1101 – 3232
Argumentative Essay
3/13/2012
SOPA
“On Oct. 26, 2011, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives” (Pike 24). This bill gives the government the power to shut down any websites that they claim have copyrighted material. Although, this could help lessen the online piracy, it could also be the ending of free internet browsing and online entertainment. It allows the government to shut down YouTube, Wikipedia, and many other sites we use on an everyday basis. This bill should not be passed because it violates our rights by going against our first amendment in the constitution, which protects the right to freedom of expression from government interference, it could also have a bad effect on the economy, and on the ability to do business. “A free society is predicated upon the free flow of information," stated Sascha Meinrath, Director of the New America Foundation's Open Technology Initiative (qtd. in “States News Service”).

Although, as we all know there are some people that have different views and are supporting this bill because they are seeking for an international legal instrument that would lead to the government having control on internet resources, users content, and to create national barriers on the free flow of information online. Supporters of this bill state that “Online piracy is a plague that steals profits not just from big movie studios and record labels but also from actors, musicians and their supporting casts. It drains as much as $58 billion per year from the economy and threatens millions of jobs” (Crowley 12). The Supporters are completely contradicting themselves by supporting this bill. This bill will generate new costs and more economic losses than ever before because the shutting down of all these huge search engines and websites would lead to many people losing their job and also all these big companies moving to another countries and...