Sopa And Pipa: Should It Be Stopped? Essay

C.K.
Language Arts 7 A
January 20, 2012

SOPA and PIPA: Should it be stopped?

In recent events, one thing that is getting bigger and bigger is the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA. What is SOPA? SOPA is a house bill that is similar to the senate bill, PIPA, or the Protect IP Act. Basically, both are going to increase the enforcement against online piracy. Now, first of all, most people can say piracy is a bad thing. But, in order to entirely stop online piracy, a great many things will have to be shut down, and almost nothing on the Internet will be unaffected.
Are PIPA and SOPA bad? There are pros and cons to many things, but it all depends on opinion. PIPA and SOPA are aiming to protect, but it is often considered a misguided solution. It will try to shut down all of the pirate websites, which would be a good thing, if they couldn’t get another web address. Law-abiding websites such as YouTube and Wikipedia will be hurt horribly. YouTube may have to take punishment as a whole for ALL of the piracy on it… It’s like shutting down Toyota because someone committed a crime with a Toyota. Wikipedia will be hurt also. Let’s say someone on Wikipedia takes a direct quote out of a book and puts it on an article, or uploads a video made by someone else, which may count as piracy!
How do supporters think? Most supporters just want an end to piracy. Usually, the supporters are film companies, acting people, singers, etc. What most of them have in common is they all produce something that can easily be put onto the internet. They say that the bills are absolutely necessary to protect creativity in America, and it will create jobs. Scott Harbinson, international representative of the Alliance of Theatrical and stage, says, “There's not going to be the level of reinvestment, particularly in the low-budget motion picture industry, if what happens is the end product is stolen and monetized by foreign entities abroad, beyond the reach of U.S. law enforcement,” he said....