Global Conflict in The Age of Technology and Internet Piracy Part III

CBSnews.com Article on SOPA and PIPA 

I, personally, find the consequences of internet piracy to be quite steep and unreasonable in many countries. The consequences change depending on how many times your file(s) have been downloaded and also how many file(s) were distributed. The United States, for example attempted to pass several bills giving the US government the power to censor sites that could potentially be a hub for copyright infringement. CBSnews.com included an article of the SOPA and PIPA protests and general information that is useful is deciding for yourself. In the article, SOPA, PIPA: What you need to know, “SOPA and PIPA...target the platform -- that is, the site hosting the unauthorized content...The bills would give the Justice Department the power to go after foreign websites willfully committing or facilitating intellectual property theft...The government would be able to force U.S.-based companies, like Internet service providers, credit card companies and online advertisers, to cut off ties with those sites.” (P.7-8) These legislations were met with a public outcry of censorship and certain websites (such as Reddit, Wikipedia, Mozilla, WordPress, and TwitPic), as a protest, participated in a 24-hour internet blackout. This social phenomenon put the bills “on-ice” so to speak.