SOPA

       As I'm sure everyone knows, we have been studying restrictions on liberties quite in depth recently. I just remembered something i read about a while ago, about restrictions on the internet; a bill currently being considered in congress called the "Stop Online Piracy Act." The act would allow the government to blacklist sites that are accused of copyright violation; blacklisted websites would be blocked by internet service providers, search engines, advertising networks, and payment providers. The party doing the accusing would not be required to prove that copyright was actually infringed, and websites would be punished without a warrant, a requirement of due process, or any sort of oversight by the court system.

       The powers the proposed law would give to the government immediately reminded me of the cases during the war on terror in which terror suspects were incarcerated without trials or even charges against them. In both cases, a the government ignores the right to due process; the Guantanamo prisoners and the accused websites are punished without proof of guilt or oversight by an independent institution.Of course, the government's actions are much more significant when they destroy lives, rather than wrongfully shutting down websites In addition, the guarantees to due process, trial by jury, and the rest in the constitution apply only to people accused of crimes, but the principle is still the same. In the case of SOPA, the government hands out punishments despite not knowing whether the accused is truly guilty.

Source: Here