Animated Video: Media Arts Collaborative Charter School Students vs SOPA

ALBUQUERQUE, NM—A recent blog post at New Mexico’s Media Literacy Project (MLP) notes, “Though corporate media have seen fit to ignore one of the biggest tech stories of the year, ninth graders at the Media Arts Collaborative Charter School (MACCS) in Albuquerque know what’s up!” As their final project in the six-week media course taught by MLP, freshmen Jack Folkner, Martin Jencka and Jay Jewell-Roth created an animated video to educate the public about the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), which was then winding its way through Congress.

The students’ video became an instant hit on savetheinternet.com. In the battle over “net neutrality,” these students threw down the gauntlet.

The SOPA bill would have expanded the ability of US enforcement to fight online trafficking in copyrighted intellectual property and counterfeit goods. Proponents argued it would protect the intellectual-property market and corresponding industry, jobs and revenue, and was necessary to bolster enforcement of copyright laws, especially against foreign websites. Opponents stated the proposed legislation threatened free speech and innovation, and enabled law enforcement to block access to entire internet domains due to infringing content posted on a single blog or webpage.

On January 18, 2012, the English Wikipedia, Reddit, and an estimated 7,000 other smaller websites coordinated a service blackout, or posted links and images in protest against SOPA and PIPA, in an effort to raise awareness. Two days later the House Judiciary Committee postponed plans to draft the bill, “until there is wider agreement on a solution."