SOPA is one of the most controversial topics of 2012. Social Media has become such a large part of our society that the idea of having it taken away is incredible strange and provokes a great deal of feelings and concerns with people. The main reason why SOPA may be beneficial is because it would stop people from being able to take material that is not theirs and upload it to their websites or web pages. This would eliminate all plagiarizing issues online. If this bill is passes all large enterprises will be able to shut down any website they find threatening in anyway. The site would then be on their own to defend their innocence. SOPA also calls for the removal or any and all pictures, videos and posts that may infringe on any types of copyrights. Social Media is all about exchanging picture and videos and ideas via the Internet.
By sharing something in the media people are able to debate and developed thoughts and opinions that will help shape our country. Gavin Polone of NY magazine believes that SOPA is a good idea however it was not exacted well. “I have funded two films with my own money and am considering doing a third. Most of the people working on those films were not rich people, but rather middle-class craftsmen who make high-five-figure to low-six-figure sums per year. My decision on whether to fund another movie, thereby employing more people, will be based on whether or not I get my money back on the last two, and my prospects for making money on another. If a film of mine is put on a file-sharing site like Pirate Bay, Movieberry, and Newsbin2, and is then downloaded to potential customers, I lose revenue. Nobody is going to pay to see a movie in a theater, rent a DVD, or legitimately download or stream a movie once they already have it from a free pirate site” (Polone). Although Mr. Polone has a valid point what he fails to recognize is that there are already laws that keep these websites at bay however SOPA is looking to take down all social media websites onto of pirate websites. If SOPA was isolated and only targeted a certain part of internet violations then it would be more affective however as of now it is just going to be extremely protested and the resistance is not worth the benefits. The law is made by old men and women whom are not exposed to the Internet and all the benefits of sites such as Twitter, Yahoo, Google and Facebook. With a different outlook SOPA could make the internet a better and more effective tool however as of now the bill, if passed, will just be an ineffective disaster.
See More: Pro-SOPA Folds Push Fact-Challenged Op-Eds, The Only Argument on the Internet in Favor of SOPA
Students Against Censorship 