A Letter my local House Rep.

Representative LaTourette, I am an 18-year-old from Hudson, and in the past few months I have become increasingly concerned over the contraction of civil rights in the United States. Most recently, bills such as the NDAA, SOPA, and PIPA have caught my eye. I was hoping to provide some constituent feedback regarding these topics; I may begin campaigning for or against candidates soon.

I know that you submitted an abstention during voting for the NDAA, and I was curious as to why. The majority of this bill is relatively innocuous; however sections 1021 and 1022 are somewhat disturbing. The indefinite detention of US Citizens and foreigners no doubt occurs every day, though stating approval in pen is quite bold. While the Bill of Rights does not protect foreigners, it does protect US citizens, and the omission of protection in these sections directly violates its tenets. An attempt to include an amendment fixing this omission was rejected; why is that?

SOPA and PIPA are quite similar proposals, both of which can have none other than nefarious intent. The supposed purpose of these bills is to stop illegal sharing of copyrighted material over the internet. Most reasonable people would not stand against this. However, the powers granted by the bills are drastically too wide and amount to censorship. Must I bring up the first amendment? Mr. LaTourette, I fear that my Congress is being manipulated. While these bills do have the ability to slow illegal file transfers, namely those made using torrenting software, they will do significantly more damage to the ability of the common man to find his place on the internet. I know quite well how these softwares work and I can personally assure you that attempting to de-list offending websites from DNS servers will not stop file sharing. It's like attempting to stop a drug dealer's activity by de-listing his house from the phone book! All I need is to find the website's IP address and it's as if nothing even happened.

The only effect these bills would have is to hinder activities on the internet that are currently legal but disadvantageous to large media companies. This, sir, is unacceptable and in many senses a corruption of the American legislative system. Several American companies that rely on the free, legal internet are planning on either shutting down or moving overseas if this bill passes, losing American jobs and economic power. May I restate that these bills are impotent when it comes to actual illegal file sharing; they will only hinder my first amendment rights as an American citizen, and this I cannot idly allow to happen. May I ask how you stand on SOPA, and, if it were to come to the House, PIPA?

I am willing to guess that you are familiar with this quote- "Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

Respectfully,