Hi, and welcome! First, you might want to read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_definition_controversy#Hacker_definition_controversy http://en.wikipedia.org

Hi, and welcome! First, you might want to read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_definition_controversy#Hacker_definition_controversy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_definition_controversy#H... and http://paulgraham.com/gba.html http://paulgraham.com/gba.html (the latter by the founder of this site), which describes how the word "hacker" is used on this site. In short, the popular concept of a "hacker" is usually considered a cracker around hacker news and similar sites, while the term hacker refers to someone interested in computers or programming. Hacking, as referring to programming, can be both a career or a hobby. "Software Engineer" would be a common job title, but many people from different industries enjoy programming on their own time (sometimes in addition to a programming job). Hacking as a hobby is a way to create things in the 21st century, where a digital creation such as a website can be just as real as a physical creation such as a car. In regards to SOPA, there is plenty of reading material on hacker news: http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/all&q=SOPA http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/all&q=SOPA (and one of the earliest links there: http://boingboing.net/2011/11/11/stop-sopa-save-the-internet.html http://boingboing.net/2011/11/11/stop-sopa-save-the-internet...) Some of the articles and comments on those threads will probably be much more useful for your story than comments on this specific thread will be. A little preface to the comments around here: what most people here tend to agree is that SOPA's free speech ramifications are much larger than its ability to stop piracy, regardless of whether they feel piracy is morally wrong or not. SOPA would fundamentally transform the internet in a way that user-created content sites that have taken off over the last decade (Wikipedia, Youtube, Facebook, Reddit, etc.) would become legally infeasible to operate. It also has several constitutionality issues, primarily around free speech and due process of law, both of which would be subverted by SOPA's provisions. But others have already said everything I could more elegantly in the above links.