If you haven’t already heard of SOPA or PITA, they are bills that have been presented to congress that are designed to stop online piracy. In fact, SOPA stands for Stop Online Piracy Act (creative, right?). Internet sites like Google and Wikipedia are protesting SOPA and PITA because of the monumental effects those bills would have on the internet community.
The purpose of this article is to raise awareness of what the ramifications would be if SOPA and/or PIPA were passed into law. First, we’ll explain the basics.
What is SOPA
SOPA was introduced to the U.S. House of Reps a few months ago as a way to protect copyrighted information from being illegally distributed. The concept isn’t the issue because online piracy is definitely an issue. In fact, some research suggests that 22% of all global internet band-width is used for online piracy.
Think about it, when you listen to a movie on YouTube and a song is playing in the background or watch a highlight video of your favorite college football team do you realize that that video may be breaking copyright laws. The songwriter, football team, or TV station have rights to that content that is being shared with the world. Internet piracy is an issue.
The Problem with SOPA
Since we’re established that online piracy is an issue that needs to be dealt with, why is there a problem with SOPA? The problem is that SOPA punishes the wrong people.
With the current laws, any user can post content to a user-generated site, like YouTube, Facebook, and Wikipedia. If the contend is considered illegal, that user is then reported and punished by the site and the content is removed. This system allows for users to post freely unless they get caught and the sites don’t get punished if action is taken ASAP.
SOPA would change the system by punishing user-generated sites for “facilitating copyright infringement.” In extreme cases, the government can shut down the site. Other punishments include taking the site off search engines and preventing other site from linking to it. Essentially, the bill would be punishing the wrong people.
To make it simple, let’s compare this situation to a library. If an illegally written book is placed in a library, according to SOPA laws removing the book and banning the supplier isn’t enough. The government can actually take extreme action and essentially burn down the library if they decided the library was facilitating copyright infringement. All the beneficial information would be destroyed because of one book.
Take Action
If you are opposed to limiting free speech on the internet, take action now and join the protest. There are numerous petitions you can sign and links to contact your local representative. Search around and make a stand today.