Hello All, I’m relatively new to The Firing Line, and I hope I’m not stepping on any toes, or breaching any rules of etiquette. If I am I assure you that it is only because of my ignorance and that I mean no disrespect to any other posters, or to this forum.
I wanted to get your collective opinions of SOPA and PIPA. While this isn’t strictly a firearms question I think it does fall under the civil liberties category (which is what worries me the most). While I generally trust the American system of government giving the courts the ability to order service providers to deny access to sights that have potentially pirated content, or ordering a search engine to delete links to those sites seems more than a little dangerous. What’s to keep the courts from yanking sites just because they don’t like what they say? Shouldn’t it be relatively easy to conjure up a bit of ‘potential piracy’ or copyrighted material? And how would smaller sites which may or may not have a real world physical presence contest this? Are a couple of guys who own and run they’re own server expected to take time off their jobs and out of their lives to go to court against big coporate lawyers?
To mind the internet is the best thing to happen for freedom of speech since the First Amendment, and while I agree the piracy and copyright infringement are a crime and a serious problem I think that the cure here may be worse than the disease.
I was a government major at William and Mary, so I know a little about these things, but I am also young man, and I recognize my lack of perspective and experience. So what are your views The Firing Line? Lend me your years.
Is this a breach of free speech? Could it affect The Firing Line, and if so, how?
Bellow is a link to a Fox News article about SOPA
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/...e-nets-future/