The Rhetoric of SOPA

SOPA, or the Stop Online Piracy Act, is a highly controversial proposal by the government that was created to prevent the online trafficking of copyrighted material.  It is an extreme way to deal with the issue of pirated files.  Although many people do agree with the fact that this issue has to be dealt with, they do not think this is the right way to do it.  Many online search engines such as Google and Wikipedia see this bill as a way for the government to censor the internet.  In protest to this bill many websites, such as the ones listed above, participated in a “blackout”.  This was not to prohibit people from using these search engines, but instead create awareness of the bill and the consequences it would have on the internet as we know it.  Many other websites (around 7,000 of them) posted either some kind of protest or links to petitions to sign.  Some even had links to your closest representative you could contact in order to voice your opinion.  In addition to protests that were held in the virtual world there were also organized petition drives, boycotts of companies that were pro-SOPA, and rallies held in New York. One political issue people have with this proposed bill is that it is a piece of legislation that could be said to reduce the freedom of expression.  It is another way for the government to control us, and go back to censoring what we can say and think.  Overall, I believe that the amount of opposition to this bill should be taken into consideration.  There has to be other ways to control the trafficking of copyrighted files.