You get home from a challenging day at school, and the first place you head to is your laptop. Your fingers lightly brush the keyboard to search for ways to relieve stress. Google seems to be your best friend, but not lately. She has been hiding certain websites you usually use to find out what’s going on in the world.

Facebook, for example, is the way you let out steam, whether you post a song about your love life, or a picture of something that reminds you of your boyfriend or girlfriend. Well, imagine that gone. Think of all the capabilities the Internet gives us.
   

What about YouTube? It’s the website that allows people to become Internet sensations in a matter of minutes. Can you imagine not hearing J.R.A singing his version of Drake’s song “Hate Sleeping Alone,” or his take on Frank Ocean’s “Novacane”?
Well, this could become a reality if Congress passes the Stop Online Piracy Act. This bill, a partner with the Protect IP Act, will cause the Internet to change dramatically.

 SOPA was introduced to the U.S. Senate to stop piracy and intellectual theft, the property that musicians, artists, and movie-makers own, that is being downloaded and reproduced illegally without consent. This issue does need to be addressed. But although this bill has good intentions, the way that they are trying to solve these problems seems drastic.

Now copyright owners reach out to websites and request the removal of pirated videos. But with SOPA, copyright owners could go to any website containing piracy and demand them to take down their product. If the website resists, they could go to court.

Smaller upcoming websites won’t have the chance to become huge websites like Facebook or YouTube because of the many restrictions they will have, like being unable to post pictures or music that  isn’t theirs. By taking the route to use this bill, SOPA, if passed, would cause a huge void in our Internet freedom. Isn’t that what this country is all about – freedom? By censoring the Internet they are taking away our freedom to be creative and innovative through the one place that holds our attention in this digital world.

We are a world that relies on technology. When people link and share pictures with friends and family on websites like Facebook, they actually are helping some artists become more popular. Although this bill is aimed to help artists, some signed an online open letter to protest SOPA.

Amanda Palmer, Nada Surf’s Daniel Lorca, The Lonely Island, Aziz Ansari, and Zoe Keating, all signed the letter against SOPA. In the letter they stated that even though piracy is an issue, they were able to gain and connect with fans by sharing their music and art with others. They felt that this bill will stifle up and coming artists creativity and innovation.

 Not only will this bill take away our freedom but it will give the federal government too much control. This bill allows the federal government to shut down websites they think are infringing copyrighted work. By doing this they are censoring the web. But what about what the people want? So far there have been over 13 million people that have signed petitions against SOPA.

With the recent protest actions of Google blocking their sign with a black box and Wikipedia and Reedit shutting down their site for 24 hours, this issue has become a major concern. This problem affects large websites like Google, Wikipedia, Reedit, Mozilla, and Twitter. On many of these sites people have been actively talking about this problem and the effects it will have on them as Internet users.

Because of the recent protests some lawmakers are now rethinking their decisions to support this bill. They decided to postpone the voting for SOPA to Jan. 24. Lawmakers now understand that Internet users weren’t going to let this bill get passed without their input. When  people stand up for something that is vitally important in their lives, like the Internet, it will be noticed and things will have to be changed or rethought to satisfy their wants.