SOPA Act

       The government is debating both the SOPA and PIPA acts. These acts will be removing pirated movies and music and other pieces of artwork that are stolen on the internet, but if they do, then they'll be shutting down everything about it. My blog is about music and since I've posted music videos, this site could be taken down if the acts go through. The government will be taking these things away from us, from people who aren't making money off it and are just trying to share it with people. I'm not stealing it, I'm just allowing for it to be visible on my site for more people to see. If anything, we're promoting the links we have in our blogs. The government plans to just shut everything down relating to one subject so if one of the artists of the songs I've posted complains, everything relating to it, including my blog, will be shut down completely. They're not making an effort to stop the people that are actually pirating it, but they're trying to stop everything about it on the internet that isn't official. By doing this, they are violating the First Amendment, removing our right of free speech. I understand where companies are coming from however.  They have a valid argument. They don't want people to steal their stuff and that's fine, everyone agrees with that, but they're handling this wrong. They're doing it the simple way, by just removing everything about the subject on the internet when they should be trying to take down the people who are actually stealing it, who are profiting from stuff they don't own. When someone posts a music video up on youtube, they can't make money off it because it's copyright, but either way, people post music videos up on youtube because they want more people to hear that music. If I was a musician and I saw my music video posted up on youtube, I'd be pretty pumped because then I know people like my music and support my work. These acts are classifying people that use the internet and post content they don't own as thiefs and criminals. These acts are also putting the artists of these pieces in a bad situation because they'll be letting their fans down. Luckily, these acts are still in discussion and more people are protesting them. The group that is supporting them is gradually beginning to disperse. I'm sure that if people rise up and fight for the arts, then both of these bills will be denied.