Description: What is the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and will it impact my internet experience? It depends. Let us explain
Source: cnn .com
Date: Jan 18, 2012
Questions for discussion:
- Why should SOFA become law? Who would benefit from SOFA becoming law?
- What are downsides of SOFA becoming law?
Sarah
If SOFA became a law, all movie producing companies and entertainment companies would benefit. They would start to see more funding and be able to make great movies with high budgets. It is said that 50% of movie profits come from people purchasing DVD’s after they have been released. Currently, since there is no law against an individual for downloading movie content, movie producing companies are not seeing high profit numbers. If SOPA became a law, people would be forced to buy DVD’s and profits would be made again.
On the other hand, if SOPA becomes a law, people will still try and find another way to torrent/illegally download content one way or another. It is very difficult to monitor people’s use on the internet and therefore, I believe there will always be a way for people to continue downloading movies, programs, and music for free.
I think there isn’t a way to completely eliminate this problem but there could be some ways to minimize it.
A major downside of SOPA becoming a law is that there would have to be a lot of time and money put into enforcing the law. Since I don’t believe piracy can be prevented completely, I think it is a waste of the government’s time and money enforcing such a law. The amount of people needed to be hired to enforce this law is more than it needs to be if people can find another piracy source. (Although, it would put a lot more middle class jobs back in the economy which is good in another sense…)
CAP
SOPA should be a law because, well for starters it’s because people shouldn’t be downloading free movies and music. There should be a law like SOPA to be in place. But would this really stop piracy? I don’t think so. This could make a dent, but I’m pretty sure people would still find other ways to get free movies or music. Who would benefit from SOPA becoming law? Ofcourse the people in the movie and music business. They are the ones profiting from people buying their products. They definitely do deserve the profits because they are the ones making the movies or music. There can be many downsides to SOPA being a law. I think if SOPA becomes a law there would be even more illegal activities being done in terms of piracy. People would just find different ways to get free movies or music either way. Just like with drugs right now, theres a law that a person can’t have it, but that doesn’t stop it from happening. I admire people or organizations that try to stop piracy and stealing, but there is just so much of it that I doubt they can really end it. There will always be people who rebel against laws and rules that it is just inevitable.
Garang
SOPA should become a law in order to fight illegal online trafficking that interfere with unauthorized copyright protected property such as music videos, Movies,and more. The law should basically be enacted to bring online criminals to justice. Big Technology companies such as Google, Facebook, and AOI will be the beneficiary once the bill is approved, but however; some search engines such as Google will disappear if SOPA passes as a law.
Que SOPA?
To me, there are hundreds reasons why people don’t want SOPA to pass, and one GOOD reason that it should pass. The weight of the reasons it shouldn’t pass though doesn’t outweigh the one reason it should pass. Imagine for a second that you are about to debut your first music album. How would you feel if you made less than half of the profits that you were supposed to make, all because it was easier for people to just download your hit single? This is the obvious reason that SOPA should be a law. There is no justifiable reason for why it should not become a law. People say that it would hamper how we use and interact with the Internet, but in reality, we only say this because we get enjoyment out of using copyrighted material on YouTube and Google without paying for it. I realize that there is more to the argument than that, but stripped down, those are the two main arguments for and against SOPA. Company’s that don’t control and filter their up-loaders content are just lazy. It would cost companies like YouTube millions to patrol their content, and they would lose millions of viewers. The argument is basic. It just depends on which side outweighs the other, and it is an individual decision.
Rosemary Aladedunye
The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) is a United States bill intended to expand the ability of U.S. law enforcement to fight online trafficking in copyrighted intellectual property and counterfeit goods. Although, the implementation of this act is going to be rather difficult and the expected success rate may not be achieved, nevertheless it is a very important act to encourage innovation and ensure that people with original ideas enjoy maximum benefits from their efforts. By protecting intellectual property, it is expected that the business will increase profit, ensure expansion thereby creating more jobs for the citizens and residents. Furthermore, by ensuring that countefiet goods are not substituted for the original, consumers will be protected, ensuring maximum satisfation from their spending. The government will also benefit because increased profits translate to higher revenue from taxes. And protecting consumers from counterfeited toxic products will undoubtedly reduce national spending on health insurances.
Like earlier mentioned, the bane to the Act is implementation especiallly with sharing movies online and ensuring complete compliance from search engines and internet providers. People will always look for ways to beat the system and it is unlikely that the five years penalty will deter people from online pirating.
nelizer tumampos
The Stop Online Privacy act is to expand the ability of U.S. law enforcement to fight online trafficking in copyrighted intellectual property and counterfeit goods. This law should be passed in the congress because thousand of people who works in media company loss their jobs due to the effects of piracy that kills the industry.
It will protect the intellectual property market and corresponding industry, jobs and revenue, and is necessary to bolster enforcement of copyright laws, especially against foreign website. However, this process will take a long run before it will become a law. Or even this will become a law, there is no assurance that it will be successful considering the fact that in technology everything is possible.
The downside of the SOPA is the impact of online freedom of expression. Under this law, it enables law enforcement to block access to entire internet domain due to infringing material posted on a single blog or webpage. This will create a huge damage on individual freedom to express personal opinion. And it would violate the first amendment, the bill of rights which include freedom of expression.
Mike
SOPA and in general all anti-piracy is out of touch with what the citizens want. SOPA was defeated and is no longer a concern but new bills have come up including ACTA and Bill C-11 (Know by some as Canada’s SOPA). These issues are very concerning to me because they restrict individual technology and prevent innovation. The failure of various industry’s to adapt to changing technology has caused them to try and fight it by law. This will never work people will continue to find alternatives to avoid the legislation and even though it may work short term long term it cannot be successful. These industries analogous with previous new industries that replaced the old ones. For example candle makers did not want electricity to become common place as it would replace their business but because a cheaper more convenient alternative was found people adopted the new technology and no matter what they did they could not continue to grow the candle industry. We may lose jobs in some industries but we should not keep jobs at the sacrifice of innovation and ideas. What will be interesting to see if they can move get one of these bills to pass is how it will affect how technology is used today. It is concerning to me that these bills prevent people from innovating and becoming more efficient. Next oil companies will be saying car companies are killing their business by developing more efficient cars.
MAS
Questions for discussion:
Why should SOFA become law? Who would benefit from SOFA becoming law?
What are downsides of SOFA becoming law?
Did anyone else catch this? Benefits of a SOFA. They are comfy and it sure beats sitting in a hard chair. Downsides of SOFA. hmm. I don’t feel like getting up once I sit down.
The people out there who support SOPA and say it is a good thing truly do not understand the negative consequences of this bill. Yes piracy is bad, but, as many people have already mentioned it will be impossible to stop. You can’t beat free and where there’s a will there’s a way. Allowing this bill to pass will give the government permission to restrict our online freedom of speech and limit our access to information. They will be allowed to shut down entire internet domains simply because a blogger posted copyrighted material. Then they have the ability to CRIMINALLY prosecute that person. Think of all the websites that will be shut down as a result of this. This will also be a new barrier of entry for website developers. Sure the bill is designed to stop online piracy, but could there be more to this bill than we are told? Who will monitor the government to make sure they are making ethical decisions? Nobody benefits from SOPA. Not even the people it’s supposed to protect.
Mike
Any industry has its peak years and its slumps. The film and music industry has had tremendous success, bringing in profits unheard of for many outside of the industry. The people who benefit from the passing of SOPA are the people in these industries who have enjoyed a fruitful profit for many years now. I feel they are like a spoiled child, having such a bountiful life to this point has got them thinking that it will be like this forever. I’m afraid that nothing lasts forever and they must take it into their own hands to maintain their clients, instead of supporting a law that essentially forces people to pay their (to some) ridiculous prices. The effect of SOPA is putting the blame on companies for the actions of its users…if we switch out a couple variables…why not pass a law that requires gun companies such as Smith & Wesson to be accountable for the users of its guns? They gave them the tools and basically turn their backs to what the users do with it. You never see a gun company on trial when someone has been murdered so please tell me why a company who gives the users tools to, potentially, commit a petty theft (under $500) should be forced to shut down or deal with the situation? …Or perhaps we should pass SOPA and make a law for other industries that are doing the same thing in a different medium or form.
KNWE
Don’t law officials have more important things to worry about like people who are committing violent crimes against people? Instead of increasing law enforcement of online trafficking, shouldn’t there be a greater focus on combatting drug trafficking? I think there are a lot worse crimes that people can commit than peer to peer file sharing.
Artists and movie production companies would benefit from SOPA becoming law, however if movie production costs and wages weren’t so inflated, people could potentially pay less for renting movies, and maybe it wouldn’t be such a big deal for people to pay to rent a movie or buy a music album. Additionally, in Canada, with the recent closure of rental stores such as Movie Gallery and Blockbuster, and limited selection of movies on Netflix, PS3, and XBOX, it makes it that much easier for computer users to turn to pirating movies.
The movie industry should follow the music industry’s strategy of making their content accessible and affordable for customers, such as Apple’s and Amazon’s making music available on a per track basis. I think that this has encouraged music users to download tracks online, because they can now download an individual track instead of paying full price for an album of which they will only listen to one or two songs.