SOPA and PIPA

SOPA (Stop Online Piracy) and PIPA (Protect IP Act) are two anti-piracy bills that were introduced by the U.S Representatives with the purpose of having a more strict control over copyright infringement and Intellectual property theft. They provide the right to request orders from the court to stop websites such as advertising websites to have any business to do with infringing websites. This also includes search engine websites like 'Google' to not include links connecting to infringing websites.

However, SOPA and PIPA brought a lot of controversy because it had people who were strongly opposing it while others were in support of the bills. Opponents of these bills had claimed that it is a threat to freedom of speech and Innovation in the sense that it would change the way people use the internet. We do so many things on the internet today, and the internet itself and the things that we have been able to achieve through it are all part of innovation. That being said, some of our favorite websites could be taken down at any time. YouTube is a great example of one of these websites because most of us visit it often. YouTube is one of the biggest video uploading and sharing websites which also deals with copyrighted videos often by taken down the particular copyrighted video. But now, YouTube would stand the risk of being taken down completely if any of its users uploads a copyrighted video

 Even though people who are in support of these bills are claiming that it would provide a more stronger protection of the intellectual property market, and also maximizes the effort of copyright laws, It is no question that our right to freedom of speech is at risk and also the way we use the internet would change.

The Ease of Accessing Information

Approximately 15 years ago, most government agencies barely had made a presence for themselves on the internet. Since then, however, government agencies have made great strides and in the year 2000, over 90% of all federal and state government agencies had an up and running internet website. Currently, the public is pushing more and more for government websites to release information that should have already been made public. Social networking sites and helping this push, making it easier for the regular citizen to view agency information as well as individual political figure information. This is bringing us closer to the state of transparency that we need to eventually get to. The increase of the internet to help governmental agencies share information that would otherwise be lost in a file cabnet somewhere has essentially networked the country, making it much easier for the average citizen to look up something on a government agency if they have a question. The rise of e-government has been one of the most striking movements on the web, giving citizens a new understanding of government if they so choose to take advantage of it. Government web portals are now virtually the face of government, with sites becoming easier to navigate. The accessibility to these portals to find out information on things like education, commerce, research, and healthcare, has truely made our government much more transparent.

Schneider, Scott. "Government Without Walls." Diss. Print. <http://www.thepolicytree.com/Government_Without_Walls,_August_2011.pdf>.

Government's Invasion of Privacy

In the past couple of years the government has been becoming more vigilant on illegal activity on the World Wide Web.  Instead of focusing on websites that give free download to the public, social networking sites that help coordinate groups and websites that leak information to help the public understand what is really going on. The government is playing a big role in our lives and with more regulation will help create a bigger hand over the digital world.

                Websites that give free download shouldn’t be held accountable for their actions or fined. In the world we live in information and application programs are so readily available there should be no reason to shout down websites. Social networking sites should be able to work freely to help people communicate and coordinate direction. Government should not have the right to watch what you say or follow what you are saying on the web because this may lead to invasion of privacy.  Websites that help hold political figures accountable for their action should not be shut down. The government figures that break the law should be held for their actions.

                The more government intervention into the web may cause frustration amongst users who use the web. If the government does pursue this route it may lead to more taxes, regulation and might make the web less efficient due to government constraints.

Government Takes Action to Protect Artists

    The internet has allowed a broadening of everyone's horizon, enabling access to information that would normally be unavailable to most individuals, and allowing people to easily remain in contact through social networks. The internet has also created a giant cache of copyrighted materials that can be easily accessed or downloaded for free. Everyone agrees stealing a CD from a store is wrong, so how is stealing a song from the internet any different?

    Governments are expected to protect their citizens' rights, both individual and corporate. As much as we'd like to "stick it to the man", we can't allow rampant theft to go unchecked on the internet. Governments have a responsibility to uphold the law, even on the internet.

    Recently, the United States government attempted to pass several acts of legislation (SOPA and PIPA) to police the internet. These acts were met with outrage by the internet community. The heavy-handed approach in these acts would do more harm than good and if left unchecked, could possibly result in shutting down every website out there. Obviously this isn't a good solution, but there should be something done to protect individual and corporate rights on the internet.

Our Privacy and Safety

     The internet has raised a lot of privacy concern. We put our private information on the internet without even knowing it. When we register on websites, some of these websites have cookies which monitors the information we put and therefore know the type of products or services to advertise to us based on the information we put. 

     This is no difference with our information that the government has. Since the government can deliver some of its services to us through the internet, it means that the privacy of our information with the government is also at risk. Anyone can easily search your address, place of work, phone number etc. on the government website. I think there should be a way that the government will have to protect people's private information at least for their safety so others can have information about you that you only want them to have.

         For instance, I saw on the news about  a student broke up with her boyfriend in school. Her boyfriend wanted to seek for revenge, and searched for her family address, so he could go harm her family in order to inflict pain on the girl. It's very alarming that he could easily get asses to the girl's family address without her giving it to him and now, their safety is not even guaranteed

     With cases like this, we should understand how dangerous it is that our private information can be easily asses on government website. 

Giving People the Right to Decide

In the past decade we as a society have been able to use the internet in more advance ways than ever before. We can download or upload data freely, we can publish what we think and the internet has brought us closer together.  I think government intervention on the internet will not be efficient or effective giving the cases in the past century.

The ability to download and upload data has made the internet more useful, not only it makes information readily available but helps us make decision in a faster process. The people of the United States are able to publish what they think on the internet, having a beneficial tool such as the internet we can make publishing faster, easier, and cost effective. The internet has brought us closer together with communication tools such as Facebook, Twitter and Google Blogger and having demonstrated ability to help us communicate and organized.

I think government has it place in helping the people be safe but regulating social networks and the internet will not make the internet a safe place. It will cost the people more tax dollars and give groups such as “anonymous” incentives to find loop holes to penetrate the systems. I think the decision should be in place with the people, not the government.