COMMENTARY | The web is abuzz with people talking about the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA) which are two bills proposed to help with the fight against piracy and copyright infringement online, at first glance they appear to have a somewhat positive aim but, in actuality, they have serious potential to negatively affect the Internet as it’s known today. While the Obama administration has opposed SOPA, the incredibly similar bill PIPA is still waiting in the wings and has plenty of support. Both of the bills SOPA and PIPA will give way too much power to the entertainment industry giving them the ability to censor and block sites that allegedly “engage in, enable or facilitate” copyright infringement and piracy. The language of the bill is written vague enough that they could easily target sites we all use regularly, such as Facebook, Google, YouTube and many other sites, causing these bills to be a serious issue. Here’s what people need to know about the bills and what can be done about them.
Why the Big Fuss About SOPA and PIPA, What Are They All About and How Does It Affect Me?
The idea behind these bills sounds pretty reasonable. They were created in order to make it easier to stomp out online piracy, what with the entertainment industry having serious issue with how many people are illegally downloading their video and audio content without payment. The problem is, however, that it makes no difference if you’re a supporter of online piracy, totally against it or just don’t care either way. The methods proposed are ineffective. Here’s what’s wrong with them.
SOPA and PIPA initially were designed with two methods in mind. First they wanted to make it possible for companies to block the domain name of any web site that is simply capable of, or seems to encourage copyright infringement in any way.Obviously this would have been horrible for everyone because this method does not even prevent the piracy. The reason that blacklisting a domain name and blocking it from being viewed isn’t effective is that anyone can still access the blocked site via its numeric IP address. In fact, prior to these bills even being voted on, tools were built that could automatically route any domain name to its IP addresses completely rendering this method of SOPA and PIPA useless, resulting in the IP-blocking provisions being removed from both bills.
The remaining, method present within the SOPA and PIPA bills would give power to the rights holder allowing them to cut funding to the site. Meaning other companies that are doing business in any way with the site would be required by law to stop. Such as site advertising, search engines links, and other listings would need to be removed completely.
There are however, important differences between the two bills SOPA and PIPA. SOPA is intended to target any website that contributes to copyright infringement in any way, even if by simply facilitating said infringement by offering a tool which could be used for purposes of an illegal nature (regardless of the original intention). PIPA, however requires that the site in question has no significant purpose beyond the infringement of copyright. In effect, PIPA is only able to be used for site censorship if the site major purpose is for the illegal activity of copyright infringement, piracy. Even so we are still facing problems under PIPA because any tool created to accept content from users is, to some extent, in the hands of said users. Should copyright infringing content be found, rights holders already have the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) to aid them requesting the legal removal of said content. The ability to sue the infringers was also given to them, as has previously been seen with the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) when, for example, a 12-year-old was sued for illegally downloading music. SOPA and PIPA provide the means to censor/block a tool which offers a means for infringing content to to able to be put onto the Internet instead of the actual content itself. This is putting a potentially dangerous amount of power into the hands of the rights holders, who could easily abuse said power.
The interpretation is of course only our opinion of the bills. With us being fond of the Internet and keeping it free of censorship we are without a doubt biased. While the right thing to do in our eyes is to oppose the bills, everyone should make a decision on their own based on the available information. For more info, please refer to the bills themselves SOPA and PIPA.
So How Do I Help Fight Against SOPA and PIPA?
Many hundreds and thousands of websites, Facebook users and bloggers across the Internet have already begun showing their protest of these bills by censoring their logos (e.g. Google), completely taking down their sites (e.g.Original FundRaising Widget, Wikipedia and many others) or posting to their social sites and updating their profile photos, Facebook Timeline Covers (e.g. Michael Milson on Facebook) on Jan. 18 and some continuing to do so until these bills are thrown out. There is outstanding opposition of these two bills because they don’t affect just the every day users like you and me, or the small startups making their first web presence, but they even affect the large companies who have a huge stake in the things modern technology and the internet have to offer. If you would like to participate in the protest yourself, there are still things you can do .
Firstly, call your congressperson on the phone. This is especially important if you live in a state with SOPA and/or PIPA supports or sponsors. Nonetheless, if your congresspeople do not support these bills you should still contact them to voice your support for their position.
Second, get the word out. Post this article, the American Censorship Day website, or any other information about SOPA/PIPA on your social media accounts. Send emails to friends and family. If you oppose the bill, help others to understand why you believe they should oppose and encourage them to read more so they can make an informed choice.