One Republican candidate seems to have chosen his side in the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) controversy that is sweeping the web.

An audience member at a Mitt Romney event in Merrimack on Friday night told the presidential candidate that SOPA regulations would hurt her online business. She said that "they are using a sledgehammer" to protect intellectual property and that these new measures would have killed her business before it even started.

Romney said that those in Washington that have never worked in the private sector can produce legislation that could kill it, whether unintentionally "in most cases." SOPA, or H.R.3261.IH, would give copyright holders and U.S. law enforcement additional power to fight online distribution of copyrighted intellectual property and counterfeit goods.

Many have argued that this would allow the these entities to censor the Internet and shut down websites. Those who are supporting SOPA are facing public backlash and threats from hacking groups. Romney told the woman that regulators need to focus their efforts on the "good guys.

"The job of a regulator is not to just to catch the bad guys and stop bad acts, it is to encourage the economy and encourage the good guys," he said.

He added that he doesn't think regulators like the American people, while questioning whether or not President Obama likes business.