Editorial Article: SOPA!

The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) is[was] a United States bill proposed by U.S. Republican Representative to expand the ability of U.S. law enforcement to fight online trafficking in copyrighted intellectual property and counterfeit goods. The provisions would include the requesting of court-orders to bar advertising networks and payment facilities from conducting business with infringing websites, and search engines from linking to the sites, and court orders requiring Internet Service Providers to block access to the sites. The law would expand existing criminal law to include streaming of copyright material, imposing a maximum penalty of five years in prison.

However, if this bill had been passed it would have threatened our freedom of speech, innovation and enabled law enforcement to block access to entire internet domains due to infringing material posted on a single blog or webpage. It would have threatened popular websites like Facebook;which allows for interaction between family and friends and uniting society, Twitter; which advocates freedom of speech, and Youtube; which allows for educational information to be shared along with acting as a hub for "aspiring artists."

The original proposed bill would have allowed the U.S. Department of Justice, as well as copyright holders, to seek court dates against websites outside U.S. jurisdiction accused of enabling or facilitating copyright infringement.

These bills, both PIPA and SOPA are dangerous, ineffective and short-sighted. They threatened freedom of speech and innovation.On January 20th, two days after the huge web blackout protests, and a few other protests from the public, Congress postponed the PIPA and SOPA bills 'indefinitely.' Clearly, Congress shared similar views and opinions as expressed above.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Online_Piracy_Act
http://fightforthefuture.org/pipa

THAT '70S SHOW

Produced by David Trainer, That '70s Show was a popular tv series from 1998 - 2006. It is a comedy revolving around a group of teenage friends, their mishaps, and their coming of age, set in the 1970s Wisconsin. This show parodied many of the attitudes, events and fads of the 70's, along with those who grew up at the time.

Typical requirements of a popular tv show are witty and believable dialogue, stereotypical characters and personality traits, follows a storyline, simple sets and easy transitions. That '70s Show had witty dialogue that was accurate to the '70s, simple sets where multiple events could take place in one set, a catchy theme song, sets were very-well lit, and included cheap, easy and simple transitions. That '70s Show was stupid, funny and cheap entertainment. It included all the stereotypical characters; a blonde and "loose" girl, a brainac, the pretty boy whose kind of dumb, the materialistic girl and the foreigner. The storyline is easy to follow because it is about friends living their lives, it mirrors the events of its target audience.

That '70s Show is a good adolescence show, because it mirrors the events of the teenage life and introduces them in a humourous manner. However, That '70s Show is not limited to the adolescence demographic, it is a good show for anyone maturing or who is mature. As much as That '70s Show mirrors the events of the teenage life during the 1970s, it also reminds adults of their adolescence years. This is a good show, because it's sole purpose is to make people laugh.