THE+IMPLICATIONS+OF+SOPA+IN+EDUCATION

It is known that The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), waiting for a floor vote, is a United States bill introduced by Representative Lamar S. Smith to fight online trafficking in copyrighted intellectual property and counterfeit goods. The purpose of this bill is to request of court orders to bar advertising networks and internet service providers from conducting business with infringing websites and block access to the sites. SOPA could be a big problem not only for commercial sites but also for some ducational websites because not all education technology websites have a copyright permission for images and videos they use. Although the education-oriented websites are not the target of SOPA, it could affect people who want to start an educational technology company. On the other hand, sometimes there is no break in the chain between a website and its user so innocent ones could be swept up as a collateral damage. As a result, Educators working in the OER (Open Educational Resources) community, Representatives of important libraries related with some universities that use digital technology, professors and some sites submitted a letter to the House of Representatives explaining why the bill would chill the creation of educational content. In my opinion it is a good idea to protect intellectual property but Representatives must be very careful in order to avoid threatening free speech and innovation.



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