The U.S government is trying to get a bill passed called "Stop online piracy act". This event has caused many to have controversial thoughts. It scares some people because life as we know nowadays revolves around the Internet. Not only is it used for social networks but it also helps students gain information for their school projects. Although this act is to prevent piracy of others, they are going to make business' fall apart. "On November 15, Google, Facebook, Twitter, Zynga, eBay, Mozilla, Yahoo, AOL, and LinkedIn wrote a letter to key members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, saying SOPA poses 'a serious risk to our industry's continued track record of innovation and job creation, as well as to our nation's cybersecurity.' (CNET news)
YouTube did not write the government a letter, however YouTube will be one of the most affected websites in the world. Any member can record a video of their TV screen of a movie and post it on YouTube. This affects YouTube because that would be considered piracy of the company who made the movie and if it is uploaded to YouTube that company won't make any money.
I feel that this piracy act would be a terrible mistake especially when it comes to YouTube because for some people this website isn't just to watch videos. YouTube are some peoples jobs, they get paid to entertain. I think it would be unfair to remove these people of their jobs. Also when it comes to celebrities, they will lose their publicity. Everyone uses YouTube to watch singers music videos and they get millions of views. If YouTube is shut down then these celebrities could potentially lose fans.
I think that this act is a smart idea because it is unfair to those who put effort into their work on the Internet and some students and others copyright the work of someone else and take credit. Having said that, I believe the government can make certain exceptions to what can be viewed on the Internet.
I do agree that some small elements of SOPA is actually a good idea, for some people who lose money because it is set free on the internet. Although like you said as well its good publicity. That being said, those are just elements of SOPA, the entirety of it, is complete Censurship of the net.
ReplyDeleteI don't know... I still buy CD's and stuff so it's not like the music industry is losing everything and i don't think that SOPA should target youtube. Some of it makes sense, sure but honestly I don't want a censorship of the internet because that would ruin the whole concept of the internet. This is not China, and I don't want to have to read what I am censured to read.
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