Article for mock newspaper The CASS Times Stop online piracy, sacrifice online freedom

by Ng Ching Peng 18th January 2012 saw a global Internet blackout in protest of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). Sites like Wikipedia and Tumblr censored themselves to protest against it, imitating what would happen if SOPA were allowed to pass. By censoring copyrighted information, the Internets very purpose to share and redistribute information could be rendered obsolete. If the sharing of copyrighted material online as well as the vehicles used to share and search for such material (file-sharing sites, Google, etc.) are banned, the whole world would be affected. Or more specifically, how would the students here in the School of Communication Arts and Social Sciences (CASS) be affected? Research for projects will definitely be affected as the resource-pool will be greatly reduced, says Emily Tan, a second year student from the Diploma in Media and Communication (DMC). Students here at CASS are heavily involved in media. A lot of work produced is distributed and promoted through the Internet and CASS students will be inconvenienced when sharing sites go down due to SOPA. Similarly, a lot of information students require to create such works is taken from the Internet. These laws naturally beg the concern of what will happen to our education, especially if sites like Google are deemed illegal because it can be used to search for downloads of copyrighted material. And not everything can be found in libraries either. Some papers require apt and prompt answers from the Internet that books don't offer. My course might as well close down and refund everyone their money, says Quek Kar Men, second year student from the Diploma in Creative Writing for TV and New Media (DTVM). Beyond our education, the Internet is a place where people connect with each other. What will happen to social connections online, especially if networking sites (where copyrighted material is heavily circulated and reposted) are banned due to SOPA? Many CASS students find that the Internet brings everyone closer together, and that it is a window to the world outside. What will happen when the world at our fingertips is taken away? But looking at the basis of SOPA, piracy is not the right thing. Yet the Internet is vast, and there will always be other alternatives. So what can be done about it? A compromise must be reached; allow the sharing of information and files, but give some measure of protection to the content producers, suggests second year DTVM student Jazlyn Koo. This is indeed the most practical solution to the situation. Yes, piracy is wrong. But if acts like SOPA are allowed to pass what would this spell for online freedom? What would this mean for the future of education, and the future of CASS students who rely so heavily on the platforms SOPA is trying to shut down?