NYU student petition to stop SOPA gathers over a hundred thousand signatures

by Feiye Wang

Published January 25, 2012
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Wikipedia and Reddit gained the attention of Internet users across the country on Jan. 18 when they blacked out for 24 hours to protest the government's Stop Online Piracy Act.

But even before websites began to take action, CAS freshman Shashank Kasturirangan addressed his concerns over game development company Electronic Arts's support for SOPA through a petition in December. Earlier this month, it was featured on the front page of change.org and had amassed 136,229 signatures at the time of publication.

Originally proposed last October, SOPA was introduced to combat online piracy. If passed, it would allow the U.S. Department of Justice to seek legal action against any site enabling or facilitating copyright infringement. Opponents claim that it violates the First Amendment and also qualifies as Internet censorship.

Kasturirangan said he wanted to send a message to EA highlighting the importance of supporting the best interests of its main consumers by opposing SOPA.

"If EA opposes SOPA, I'm sure that Nintendo and Sony will be forced to follow suit," he added.

Kasturirangan said EA, along with Nintendo and Sony, removed their names as supporters of SOPA only after public pressure. But he says they have not withdrawn their full support.

His stance on SOPA stems from his belief that the bill is unconstitutional and harms small-time businesses and developers. By garnering attention within the gaming community, he hopes that the public will become educated about SOPA's harmful effects.

"Opposition is in the vast majority among those who actually know about SOPA," he said. "The problem is that there is almost no reporting on it in the mainstream."

But NYU Tisch ITP master's candidate Mark Kleback says there are more effective ways of communicating the issues SOPA brings up.

Earlier this month, he posted an open letter urging Senator Robert Casey to withdraw support from the bill on his blog. Kleback feels that congressmen, including Casey, are misinformed about the effects of SOPA.

"Many Congressmen are ignorant — the [Motion Picture Association of America and Record Industry Assocation of America] are lobbying for the bill to pass, and because they have the money, Congressmen don't care what the experts have to say," he said.

Klebeck, who founded an engineering startup called Kleebtronics, said SOPA will affect how the rest of his life will work out: "This is not just something that will change Silicon Valley. As long as there are these discussions, I will always be active [with SOPA}."

As of publication time, the Senate has postponed finalizing any decision on the bill. Nonetheless, Kasturirangan is not letting his guard down.

"I'm certainly glad SOPA and PIPA have been shelved. I'm still fairly sure it'll come back, but we'll be quite ready for it," Kasturirangan said.

A version of this article appeared in the Wednesday, Jan. 25 print edition. Feiye Wang is deputy investigative editor. Email her at university@nyunews.com.

NYU student petition to stop SOPA gathers over a hundred thousand signatures | NYU's Daily Student Newspaper