Comics reaction to SOPA- Part 2

For this week's look at the controversial SOPA, or Stop Online Piracy Act, we will look once again at an article posted on Comics Alliance titled "The Dangers of SOPA, The Stop Online Piracy Act, to Comic Books and You" by columnist Aaron Colter.

-Colter believes that this bill is an attempt by the U.S. Government to prevent citizens from accessing sites that outside of U.S. jurisdiction. Instead of attacking the sites head on, the government is trying to prevent the citizens from getting to the sites.
-With one of the provisions in SOPA intended to stop payment services from processing money to pirated sites and material, credit services such as Paypal, VISA, or Mastercard could be shut down on a national level. This would affect many comics readers who use these methods to pay for their products.
-With a greater emphasis on stopping piracy at the search bar, companies such as Google would be forced to almost completely overhaul their search engine in an attempt to disassociate itself with piracy and pirated products.
-Colter notes comics previous history with censorship problems, such as the Comics Code Authority label, and believes that since the comics industry was not directly targeted, the industry has not come together on a stance yet. However, these provisions to the internet would effect the entire comics industry in the long run.

Both Colter's and Shand's articles show the long reaching effects SOPA would have to not just business and websites, but ordinary citizens. In order to take a position on SOPA, one must go directly to the source, look at the act itself, and see how it would effect industries in the long term.