ComicsAlliance

The Dangers of SOPA, The Stop Online Piracy Act, to Comic Books and You [Op-Ed]

By Aaron Colter

If you spend any amount of time on the Internet that doesn’t involve asking someone younger why you can’t get Google to work, then you’ve probably seen a united and unprecedented team of companies and creative professionals — including ComicsAlliance’s parent company AOL — coming out against the proposed legislation referred to as SOPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act.

The debate over the bill has caused Get Your War On creator David Rees to start a new webcomic, seen above, called Get Your Censor On. Popular aggregate site Reddit is going dark on January 18 to protest the bill, as is Wikipedia. The video game industry is split over the issue, although most major corporations seem to still be supporting the underlying notions of SOPA.

As both fans who love the comics and critics who believe that the open exchange of art and ideas is essential to the vitality of the medium and its distribution, here’s why we think proposed laws like SOPA are damning to both comic books and the creative industry generally, and why there has been such a conflicting response — or lack of one — from comics publishers.

SOPA came to the forefront on the comics blogosphere recently when Marvel Entertainment and its parent company Walt Disney, along with DC Comics owner Time Warner, were named on a list of SOPA supporters released by congress and publicized online. Seeing the ostensible support of the bill from the two biggest publishers in comics prompted a variety of responses within the comics community, including some pointedly negative ones from creators like Steve Niles.

The internet has become an essential tool for the distribution of comic books and discussion about them. Fans and pros alike promote both individual comics and the medium itself by creating and sharing art on forums, websites, and social networks, practices that are directly imperiled by these laws.