All of us know about the crimes committed every day by people all over the world. Theft, assault, grand theft auto, underage drinking, fraud, prostitution, and rape. But what about crimes on the internet? Last year, SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) was introduced to the world. If this bill was passed, many sites would have to censor certain pieces of information, as well as remove a lot of the content already uploaded. SOPA would also crack down on terminating torrent sites, which are used to share files such as music, movies, video games, e-books, and whatever else is a digital file. In my opinion, SOPA should not be passed due to the fact that censoring information on the internet is an act against the first amendment. SOPA should not be passed due to the fact that it goes against the first amendment and will lead to a corrupt information sharing system.
One of the biggest reasons that SOPA should be stopped is because it is directly against the first amendment. For example, Wikipedia would be able to write articles on a site such as The Pirate Bay or Kick A** Torrents, but if they were to include the link to the sites, they could get into trouble with government for supplying their readers with the links to sites that support online file sharing. This would go against freedom of speech. “As the fracas over the proposed federal anti-privacy legislation known as SOPA heats up this week, the open-source encyclopedia website, Wikipedia, says it will shut down for 24 hours, beginning midnight Tuesday to protest what the website warns is a threat to free speech(Wikipedia blackout- Why even supporters question anti-SOPA move). Many people were upset about the blackout, but clearly got the message. The bill’s opponents, wh...
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...ormation we are very to fit their needs. These are just three ways in which you should truly think about if you think SOPA is a good act.
These reasons above are why my personal opinion is that SOPA should not be passed due to the fact that it would go against many of our rights including the first amendment. Whether it is the fact that online piracy can’t be stopped, the first amendment is being violated, or the government is becoming an overly powerful system, SOPA should not be passed to allow these things. So my personal question to you is, do you truly want to live in a world where all the information being shared is constantly monitored and edited by the government, or do you want to live in a world where you know that what your viewing is the way it is happening in the real world and you know it is one hundred percent true? Think about it and choose wisely.
The First Amendment states that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people to peaceably assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances" (First Amendment Oct. 20, 2013). But "the First Amendment does not protect all speech from government censorship, and it does not prevent private non-government entities from censoring. Years of US Supreme Court decisions have identified exceptions to the general rule that the governments in the United States cannot censor" (Censorship Copyright © 2002). American citizen's right of freedom of speech should be held in the highest integrity and any kind of censorship of free speech should not be allowed because it take away those rights. However, censorship has been going on for centuries.
A big topic that has come about is should people be prosecuted for illegally pirating online files. This includes; music, movies, programs, games and pictures. The large portion of online piracy is music. Some will argue stealing a song is as bad as stealing a car. (kain) Others will concur that song artist and record companies are losing big time bucks. Downloading music should be prosecuted as it is still stealing. Whether the person has it in their physical possession or files on their electronics it is still stealing and artist are losing money that is rightfully theirs.
Imagine a place where you have access to anything and everything one could want. Some would say that is only existent in a utopia, and some would say that describes the Internet. Many adults go on to the net and access pornographic material that would be unsuitable for children. This is called cyberporn. The controversy lies in the fact that children are accessing these materials also. Government, activist groups, and concerned parents are fighting to regulate obscene material found over the Internet to protect children. The first amendment is the only thing protecting adults from losing their rights to obtain pornographic or indecent material on the net. Under the first amendment the government must not regulate cyberporn. Online sex has been around since the first bulletin boards were available over the computer in the early 1980's. People would pay to down load pornographic pictures and talk dirty to each other. Usenet groups took control of porn after the Internet came about. They did not charge people to down load picture and to interact with others. In result, Internet porn grew (Rosen 16). Things have changed drastically since then with over a million different sites available to access porn. Now it is not just for adults. Children are accessing the obscene materials. This brings rise to issues of how to protect them from problems that can arise. The materials they view, could influence children. They could also be subjected to cybersex in a chat room full of people that could be three times their age. Worst of all pedophilias could influence children to meet with them outside of the computer. The government and the United States citizens must now figure out how to protect our children from the effects of cyberporn, and y...
"Free speech is the whole thing, the whole ball game. Free speech is life itself." The basic rights guaranteed to Americans in the Bill of Rights is what holds the United States together. When Salman Rushdie wrote Guardian, he knew this. Unfortunately, the majority of congress and the President himself have forgotten the basic rights of Americans. When President William J. Clinton signed the Communications Decency Act that was proposed but the 104th Congress, he severely limited the rights of Americans on the Internet. The internet, just like books, magazines, artwork, and newspapers, should not be censored.
This gives another reason why these acts go against our constitution and the people's rights. Since the Congress cannot make laws reducing the “ freedom of speech or of the press” these acts don't take away the rights, they just limit them a lot. “Provided that the expiration of the act shall not prevent or defeat a prosecution and punishment of any offense against the law, during the time it shall be in force.” Even though the laws expired or became out of date you could be jailed if you didn't follow the rule anyway. This rebuttal is a pretty big eye opener for both sides argument, it shows that it's not taking the right away, but it's limiting it so much that it might as well not be a law.
As many users see P2P software as just file sharing, entertainment industries and other big companies see it as copyright infringement and stealing from copyright owners without their rightful authorization or compensation. These companies complain that P2P file sharing threatens the survival of the industries and believe that there should be a law passed to protect the livelihood of the copyright holders.
...have jurisdiction on what can and can’t be said. Most of the things that will be censored are the hackers, crackers, trolls, and bullies; not the regular people voicing their opinions. While many of these points are important, they can be easily solved without affecting the common good. If your child doesn’t listen to what he can or can’t surf on the internet. It’s up to the parents to take away their child’s internet privilege. Same with reading indecency post of other users. No one forced them to read it, if they don’t like the content of the website, then stop visiting it or ignore the comments of others. Also if developers don’t want their product to be pirated, then they should create more security measures for their product. The common good shouldn’t be punished because people are too lazy, or weak to implement problem solving skills to assess their problems.
Another issue includes the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. This act was specifically designed by Congress to give a safe harbor to Internet service providers so that they would not be held liable for their users' activities.
Modern piracy has touched nearly every corner of the globe and has increased with globalization. The tentacles of piracy now extend from South America to the South China Sea. The greatest numbers of piracy incidents occur along maritime commercial trade routes. Since China dominates the world’s container shipping industry, the South China Sea has become a hotspot for piracy (Kraska 2011). The prominence of cargo activity increases opportunity for pirates and indisputably triggered the sixty- nine incidents of piracy that were reported in 2009 in the South China Sea (Kraska 2011).
The United States of America is a free country, then why shouldn’t the internet be free? Why should we have restrictions placed on what we can and cannot do on the internet? Every day, millions of users share files on the internet through numerous online sources. Whether they download music, movies, or software, online file-sharing can give people access to a plentiful amount of information. These files are often free and easily accessible by anyone. The practice of distributing or providing access to digitally stored information represents file sharing (Peer-to-Peer File-Sharing and Copyright Infringement: Are You Vulnerable?). Conversely many people see file sharing as unlawful. The reproduction or distribution of any copyrighted digital media or information defines internet piracy. Many people see downloading copyright files such as music, movies, books, and software as illegal. Music files, some of the first types of files to be reproduced and distributed through internet sources, contain the file extension .mp3. Several popular file sharing programs were developed in the 1990s and facilitated internet piracy. Big industries try to combat file sharing to help increase their revenue, however internet piracy actually increases revenue of industries and has numerous other benefits (What Is Internet Piracy?). The copy and distribution of digital files increased due to technology (Torr). Internet piracy, considered a problem all over the world, stands as difficult to stop along with other kinds of piracy (What Is Internet Piracy?). Anything can be digitalized and once something becomes digitalized it will be shared all over the internet (Torr). Canadian and European laws allow for the downloading of copyright files for personal us...
The protection of trade in general has always been considered as essential to the defense of the commonwealth, and, upon that account, a necessary part of the duty of the executive power.
In the third paragraph the author says, “The proposed Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, which is being considered in the House while the Senate looks at a similar bill, is deemed the worst thing ever. “ However, at no point does the author state who considers this bill “the worst thing ever.” There are many people who supported this bill, and I would assume in supporting this bill that they did not think it was the worst bill ever.
The proposed internet filter is not only a flawed concept, but an expensive one. If implemented, it will do little to nothing to prevent online crime. The cost of the filter far outweighs any benefit and the potential for abuse in the future is frightening. Viruses will still exist, phishing scams will continue, illegal downloading of movies will still exist and paedophiles will still get their child porn.
Although online file sharing debuted in 1999, lawmakers and copyright industries are just beginning to address the myriad questions the practice has generated. In At Issue: Internet Piracy, authors attempt to answer some of those questions.
Online piracy is a huge problem, one which costs the U.S. economy between $200 and $250 billion per year, and is responsible for the loss of 750,000 American jobs. These numbers seem huge: $250 billion per year loss would be almost $800 for every man, woman, and child in America. And 750,000 jobs – that’s twice the number of those employed in the entire motion picture industry in 2010 (Freakonomics). In 2010, the Government Accountability Office released a report noting that these figures “can be substantiated or traced back to an underlying data source or methodology,” which in English means these figures are legitimate and that piracy really does hurt our economy.