The World of Censorship

The World of Censorship

Will censorship ruin the use of the internet for streaming music and other media? For years, the government and other organizations have censored music, movies, and TV. The copyright laws and censorship of the music and media has not stopped people from illegally stealing and distributing the media for free. It is hard for the government to come up with laws and acts to stop these things from happening. While the government is trying to stop this from happening, corporations, copyrights, and the SOPA act help prevent the stealing of music and help censor the music as well.

Retailers and corporations that sell music play a big role in the effects of censorship on music. The government is not the only entity that can censor music: "We're not only talking about government-imposed bans. Censorship of music can come from retailers, corporate interests and lobbying groups" (Williamson). A music retailer can censor a song or CD to whatever extent they feel is right. The retailers can also “sticker” albums that have explicit content. Some corporations are cracking down on how they sell the stickered albums: “A Billboard survey suggests that retail chains across the country are attempting to be vigilant regarding the sale of stickered material to minors” (Morris and Jeffrey). The corporations will keep minors from buying certain cd's. The government could help the corporations with these restrictions.

The government proposed a new ban against the piracy of music called SOPA. The organization: “SOPA is aimed at halting the piracy of copyrighted material, such as movies or music, mainly by companies based in foreign countries” (EDITORIAL: Censorship). The effects of SOPA are simple: stop piracy before it starts. This would cause sites like YouTube to shut down because of the free streaming music that the site provides. Websites like Wikipedia and YouTube shut down for the day, when SOPA was proposed. A lot of people are unhappy with SOPA, "I'm concerned that it is irresponsible to empower lawyers to wield a weapon that they don't understand, created by politicians who are clueless about the Internet" (Rulison). If SOPA pushes through there will be a lot more unhappy people and less freedom, when it comes to the internet