McGraw-Hill SOPA Letter

 If you're a student using McGraw-Hill textbooks and against SOPA, please feel free to print or copy this letter and send/ email this to McGraw-Hill.  At the bottom of this letter are the email addresses I've already sent this to.  Please do the same.  




To Whom It May Concern:

Recently it has come to my attention that McGraw-Hill publishing company has publically supported H.R. 3261, also known as the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). Though it is understandable that McGraw-Hill would want the protection of it’s material and authors from piracy, this bill goes much further than protecting the material McGraw- Hill publishes. Supporting SOPA is supporting Internet censorship, and for a publisher of media, Internet freedom should be a priority. Please take a minute to let me briefly explain how SOPA is a bill made of blind logic not worthy your support. 

As a student currently using your textbooks in the classroom, I am deeply concerned that McGraw-Hill is in opposition of Internet freedom.  What makes our country different from China, Iran, and other countries is our ability to form opinions and independently educate ourselves without the limits of our government. The importance of this is taught to us everyday in our classrooms and in textbooks you publish.  However, SOPA will take that freedom away. Not only will SOPA effectively remove Youtube videos of kids singing their favorite Christina Aguilara song, but it will also allow the Federal Government to completely remove information (and shut down the site entirely) from websites with educational benefits. While the protection of your material should be, and is, important, nothing should be placed above the ability for independent education; not even the few dollars you would make from removing .pdf versions of your overpriced textbooks.

However, in more broad terms, SOPA will allow the Federal Government to infringe on our 1^st Amendment Rights while also inhibiting education and innovation.  Keep in mind; this happens without due legal process. This extreme piece of legislation will change our Internet experience forever and will illegally censor the Internet even for unproven accusations of copyrighted material. Gabe Newell, the CEO of Valve Gaming, has explained that piracy has affected his sales. However, he has also come on record to say, “Piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem”, implying that defeating piracy is done by offering services better than what the pirates can provide (iTunes, Pandora Radio, Spotify, Google Music). 

I hope McGraw-Hill will reconsider its position on H.R. 3261 and evaluate if Online Piracy (or Internet Censorship) is worth losing our 1^st Amendment Rights and the educational value of an uncensored Internet. This invasive and extreme legislation, if passed, will not only be a detriment to future generations, but this will also set a precedent to both developed and developing countries that freedom of information and education is second to the monetary value gained through censorship.   

Wesley R. Reed

Student

USMC


Email addresses I've sent this to:
 jason_feuchtwanger@mcgraw-hill.com
 Mary_Skafidas@mcgraw-hill.com
 tom_stanton@mcgraw-hill.com
 helen_hosein@mcgraw-hill.com
 lydia_rinaldi@mcgraw-hill.com