Research Paper Sources 4-6(Pages 24-26)

For this next installment of research, I have decided to examine a number of shorter sources, but ones that still provide valuable information in order to make an informed decision about SOPA's effects on the comic book industry.

Source 4: An open letter to Washington from Artists and Creators: Written by Neil Gaiman and others
-Gaiman and his collaborators acknowledge the threat that online piracy causes to their creations and thank
Washington for trying to solve the problem.
-The group notes the benefits of an unrestricted internet, allowing creators to interact with fans around the world using such sites as Facebook and Twitter.
-The group fears that SOPA's policies, though crafted with good intentions, can be misused to stifle creativity and digital distribution. They propose that the effects that SOPA would have on Piracy would be outweighed by these negative impacts on creators.
-The group believes that the internet would be caught in the crossfire between SOPA and creators.

Source 5: Open Letter to Marvel Comics regarding SOPA, and a call to Readers and Creators: By Ales Kot
-Kot states that SOPA is simply unconstitutional because of its infringing on the 1st amendment rights to free speech.
-With SOPA's passage, the government can block these websites without due process of law. According to Kot, this act is driven entirely by the profit of eliminating online piracy.
-Marvel's endorsement of SOPA has led Kot to stop buying all Marvel products out of principle.

Source 6: PIPA and SOPA-Good but flawed idea-Over Reaction by 'internet' users: By user nhalden
-nhalden points out comic fandom's hypocrisy in that it accepts copyright laws but does not accept the passage of SOPA. Also, comic fans seem to be ok with the act of piracy of works for their own personal gain. This is exactly what SOPA is trying to prevent.
-nhalden does cite that although Youtube is a website that makes piracy very easy, its administrators do a good job of taking down copyrighted material before a problem is caused.
-SOPA's jurisdiction extends to actions with "malicious intent, constructive competition, and profit motive" and thus would not apply to simple fan art or sketches or a site such as Facebook
-nhalden believes that the theories of SOPA's complete censoring of the internet fall with the extreme 99.999% of what could actually happen. He encourages comic fandom to take a more realistic approach to this act. He points out the bills flaws but agrees with its stance to end piracy.