Chicken SOPA For The Piracy Soul

Being sick with pneumonia for the past few weeks I’ve heard a lot about “sopa.” Probably not the “sopa” you’re thinking about. The “sopa” I’m talking about is the delicious soup my mother makes (Sopa is soup in Spanish). Although my mother’s “sopa” can sometimes be elaborate and a bit complicated to understand its ingredients, I will have to admit it does not compare to trying to understand SOPA, the antipiracy act.

It was not until last week when Wikipedia had a 24-hour blackout and Google censored its own logo that many people actually heard about SOPA, but what exactly is SOPA. Luckily the article an Amy Schatz from the Wall Street Journal, answers all our questions. There are two bills against piracy, SOPA and PIPA. SOPA stands for Stop Online Piracy Act, and PIPA stands for Protect Intellectual Property Act. Both bills have been created to stop the problem of foreign-based websites that sell pirated products such as movies and music. The bills are trying to stop the foreign-based websites from being funded by advertisement from U.S. companies.

Our government will take action against these websites by blocking users from accessing the sites, as well as requiring search engines to disable links to the sites. Ads will not be allowed on pirated websites and all credit card transactions will be stopped. Both bills will also allow Hollywood studios to seek private legal action against websites with pirated material.

Personally up to this point this act sounds great to me. It is something that needs to happen, but why exactly is everyone so against this act. According to the article, many believe that the language in the House bill is too broad that it will affect websites that aren’t knowingly hosting pirated material. These bills can even lead to the end of Facebook, Wikipedia, and Twitter, and that is enough for people of all ages to be against this bill.

With the backlash these bills have received I don’t believe either of them will pass any time soon. If the houses do pass the bills, the next step is for President Obama to decide if he wants to sign or veto the bill. Again, with all the negative reaction the bills have received, I find it hard to believe that President Obama would choose to sign a bill that many potential voters are against, especially during an election year.