Political Cartoon 3

This political cartoon by Montie Wolverton is about the Protect IP Act/SOPA Bill that is trying to be passed in Congress. The bill, if made law, would give corporations the ability to take down any and all videos, sites, images, etc that they feel infringes upon their intellectual property. Since the wording is so loose in the bill, the major fear is that the bill can be interpreted by corporations in any manner that they see fit, essentially allowing these corporations to stop the democratic free speech nature of the internet.

The major symbols and imagery used are the baby, the knife, and the corporate businessman. The baby is used to represent the internet community and those who would be affected by the passing of the bill. The image of the baby is used in order to evoke innocence and to lend sympathy to the plight of the online community and their situation with "internet corporatocracy". The businessman represents the "internet corporatocracy" who would be given free reign with the passing of the bill to take down anything they feel conflicts with their intellectual property rights. Finally, the dagger represents the bill itself, the ability for the Internet corporations to misuse the bill for their own benefit and the harm it could do to the internet as we know it.

The two major techniques that Wolverton uses is his use of imagery and symbolism as well as his use of sympathy. Each object in the picture is a representation of an idea like the bill, the internet community, etc and the scene that the cartoon creates helps describe the interaction between the three ideas. Sympathy is evoked through the plight of the innocent baby that is the internet who, with the passing of the Protect IP bill, would be severely hurt.

Through the cartoon, it is very clear to see Wolverton's point-of-view and message regarding the Protect IP bill. He, like I, believe that the passing of the bill would have serious ramifications that could result in the limiting of the freedom of expression that the internet currently provides. If the bill is passed, content on the internet, just as the cartoon's message expresses, could be severely censored and limited due to the seemingly unlimited power that Protect IP would grant corporations.