Talk:Seddie/@comment-3027660-20120120232624/@comment-3247345-20120122054424

I know that using unaltered copyright material isn't protected by the 1st amendment. We would all be in trouble if it was. The 1st amendment issue comes in when the government or the big corperations can take stuff off the web simply because they don't like it. SOPA opens the door to that kind of abuse. SOPA, as written, undermines the first amendment, if it doesn't violate it outright. If it passes, expect a court challege, and expect the courts to throw it out. As for what the govenment did with Megavideo, I'm not saying that the administration is violating the 1st amendment or the law. To contrary, the adminstration is doing that under existing copyright laws. If the sites were breaking copyright laws, then the government was within it's rights to shut it down. All I'm saying is the timing is suspicious. While what the government did was legal, I think it was politically motivated. If the accusations are true, and I don't know if they are, but if they are, they've been going on for a long time. Why choose now to go after the site? The administration chose now so that it didn't appear to be going soft on internet piracy as it backs away from SOPA.