Internet censorship
Thousands of websites, including some of the most popular, are going dark today to protest the Stop Online Piracy Act, (SOPA) which is designed to thwart copyright infringement but that Web experts warn could threaten the functionality of the Internet.
SOPA would give both the government and major corporations the power to shut down entire websites accused of copyright infringement with neither a trial nor a traditional court hearing. The legislation is aggressively backed by Hollywood movie studios and major record labels, along with several major news providers, including Fox News and NBC-Universal, which have largely shied away from coverage of the bill.
SOPA would give both the government and major corporations the power to shut down entire websites accused of copyright infringement with neither a trial nor a traditional court hearing. The legislation is aggressively backed by Hollywood movie studios and major record labels, along with several major news providers, including Fox News and NBC-Universal, which have largely shied away from coverage of the bill.
Wikipedia Shuts Down to Rescue 'Free, Open Web'
Wikipedia says its English website – used by hundreds of millions of
people every day – will go dark for all of January 18, while Google and
other sites are also calling attention to the legislation on their
pages.The legislation -- called the Stop Online Piracy Act in the U.S. House Of Representatives, and the Protect Intellectual Property Act in the U.S. Senate -- is designed to combat illegal sales of pirated U.S. intellectual property.
Google asked for help
Inappropriate materials are found on the web each day. It has been argued that the government should set up censorship on websites. However, the government should not censor the WWW. First of all, limiting the access of the Internet is unconstitutional. Second, censoring material on the web is a nearly impossible task. Lastly, the information exposed to children should be the parents’ responsibility.
I believe censorship of the Internet is unconstitutional. The Internet is the best source of people expressing their opinions and facts. Corn-Revere once made-known, “’on-line systems give people for more genuinely free speech and free press than ever before in human history.’” In fact, “Freedom of speech” or “Freedom of press” is guaranteed by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. For these reasons, censorship of the Internet is illegal.
There is absolutely no doubt, censorship of the web would be a challenging task to the government. Moreover, it would be costly. According to an on-line forum, answerbag.com, a posting answering the question, “How many websites are on the Internet?” posted on July 15, 2003 at 5:18 PM stated, “You cannot expect answer for the number changes about every hour.” If this is true, then the government would have to invest large amounts of manpower and time. In addition, all the other countries need to support this issue.
In my opinion, information revealed to children should be the parents’ responsibility. Although some of the Internet websites can be harmful to children, the parents’ should be the ones to keep them away from websites. This is because the government cannot prevent people to gongoozle the web. Even if the Internet has censorship the problem would yet to be solved. In addition, the websites that give unfavorable examples are also known in other media. The TV, for example, comprises mountains of motion pictures that consist of dangerous examples such as the use of drugs and murder. Furthermore, magazines can scar a life. Magazines can recreate how a person acts or feels. For example, if a plump female glances at a beautiful picture of an extremely skinny celebrity the girl may become anorexic. For this reason, parents should be responsible to keep their children pure.
As you can see, the government should not obstruct you, me or anyone from the World Wide Web. Again, preventing the usage of the Internet is unconstitutional. Similarly, censorship of the web is a difficult mountain to climb. Finally, the information, revealed to children, should be the parents’ responsibility.
Video:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNr353rJH8U
