First off, I don't want to post this in the wrong thread/forum/topic or anything, It's just, i don't think this belongs in the random topic or... anyother topic, also the rules state that political debates are ok as long as they are not heated, also there are other non-furry related topics on this forum so I thought this would be ok
.
So, everyone knows about the whole Stop Online Privacy Act and the dangers it could have on Facebook, youtube, wikipedia, twitter and other websites. I'm hoping everyone knows that SOPA is a bad thing because it does censor the internet and can cause some of our favourite sites to go down. But I think that there is an even more serious problem that SOPA creates.
Our world in terms of international law is protected by something known as "state sovereignty" which is the ability to make laws in your own nation state*. What comes with this idea is that Nation States are not affected by the laws of other nation states, for example, America does not have to follow the laws of north korea, germany does not have to follow the laws of italy, the UK does not have to follow the laws of Iraq etc etc etc. [size=78%]That's why the Internet is something that is extremely hard to moderate, because the internet is an international affair and therefore is not protected by the laws of any nation states, some countries have managed to censor the internet for there country, however their impact on the internet is very minimal. [/size]
So what does this all mean? America is one of the largest commercial input in the internet, when they censor something, you can imagine that even non-america companies will lose a lot of their user base. So in order for non-american companies to keep a good user base, non-american companies need to follow AMERICAN LAW. That's right, because america is bigger and puts more money in the internet, if SOPA passes, other countries will have to follow the laws of america in terms of the internet (if they want to make enough money). This idea, I believe, completely destroys state [size=78%]sovereignty and takes advantage of the international law making system we have. This is very bad, it could lead to other large internet consumers to take advantage as well. What if asia decides to censor websites they don't like? America would be indirectly forced to follow their laws. What if some countries don't like happening to indirectly enforce american laws? what if this causes disputes in the future, what if SOPA eventually leads to war?
[/size]
tl:dr pretty much, SOPA is bad, it doesn't only censor the internet but can cause more problems like one countries laws being enforced in other countries. If you're against SOPA and if you haven't already, it's always good to spread the word and if you're a US citizen to contact your nearby congress. If you're not a US citizen, contacting the state department is always an option.[size=78%]
*Nation state = country[/size]
