SOPA For Dummies

“To promote prosperity, creativity, entrepreneurship, and innovation by combating the theft of U.S. property, and for other purposes.” —H.R. 3261

Lamar Smith

Some of you might have heard of this, some maybe not. Chances of you hearing about it if you live in remote Europe (hello Scandinavia) is not that great, but to the Western metropolis that is America, it’s all the public can think about. Stop Online Piracy Act (or SOPA as it is known), is a bill making its way through the American legal system, causing destruction and devastation in its path. The bill, a brainwave of House of Congress representative Lamar Smith (yeah, I thought he would be black too with a name like that) is set out to try and combat online piracy, and be able to take websites to court over the issue of online theft. With the backing of the Hollywood music industry, it is likely to be passed. 

Now, if I am not right, piracy is a bad thing and this is a good bill as it is seeking out to stop it. And technically, it is. It is the repercussions however that has sparked a Internet war between website owners and the US government. 

On one side of the coin, the proposers of the bill say it will cut down on counterfeit goods being sold and purchased over the Internet and see a decline in the amount of money being lost by companies. Also, in full effect, the bill would make scams and fraud become very hard to achieve. The flip side to this is that Internet companies argue the bill would see their websites suffer serious traffic deflation, evidently leading to a loss in profit, and the possibility of their website having to shut down. Furthermore, some say Internet safety will be put in danger, as computer boffin’s will seek to find different ways of dodging the law. Copyright laws could become more serious, with content uploaded to YouTube containing some form of copyright infringement being taken down and possibly being held as a criminal offence. There is also danger that the new bill could clash with other US policies over Internet security and copyright. The list goes on.

Really though, it comes down to the matter of free speech. The bill will lead to a ultimate restriction to what can be shared and said over the Internet. One thing Americans don’t like is being told what to do. Or even worse, told what not to do. The idea that websites will be removed from the web due to piracy links and holds a striking similarity to the censorship laws put it place in China. At an extreme, it seems like America, the powerhouse who fought against communism in the 1940’s, might hold some similarities if the bill is passed. After all, communism didn’t allow free speech, and communism did had very strict rules on media. But, for the sake of it, lets keep it modern and relate it to China. You know, for the sake of it. 

Google chairman Eric Schmidt linked SOPA to the current Chinese media restrains, saying, 

“The solutions are draconian. There’s a bill that would require ISPs to remove URLs from the web which is also known as censorship last time I checked,”

The high flyers of SOPA opposition

The Internet giants opposing the bill include Yahoo!, Facebook, eBay, Twitter and Reddit. The most important website opposer however is undoubtedly Google . With the backing of Google, who even the congressmen pushing the bill know is vital to the cyber community, the anti-SOPA campaign has received tremendous support and made waves among the legislators. Even if the bill does go through, these websites are trying there damned hardest to turn the American public against the bill. And it is working. 

The most vocal and noticeable support for the anti-SOPA is the American Censorship Day, an Internet blackout by websites, sporting logos on their websites showing their support against SOPA. Now, I would be lying If I told you I completely understood what is going to happen regarding a blackout day, and I apologise for the lack of information on this section. Apparently it is somewhat difficult to find out exact dates and participants, but from what I can gather, there is going to be a internet “blackout” on 18th January. Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has announced that his company will join in the blackout, with calls for Facebook, Twitter and other large companies to follow suit. Whether these blackouts will effect the whole world is still unclear, as the Eastern world don’t seem to have really picked up on the whole SOPA thing. Well I for one haven’t seen it mentioned on many British TV network.

Despite the calibre of the campaigners against the bill, the bill does boast some big supporters. The list of supporters include Nike, L’Oreal, NBA, NFL and Ford motors. A full list can be found here 

The next important debate on SOPA in Senate is on the 18th January, were we will see just what is going to happen next and if the very public opposition has worked.

So, hopefully I have succeeded in educating the non-political among us about SOPA and just what power it has. Please, if there is anyone who can shed some more light on the actions of the protesters and the planned blackout day, please comment below, or contact me on Twitter or Facebook (links below)

If I have failed to get through to you, here is a video that will maybe explain it better – Explainer – understanding SOPA

Thanks for reading,
C.

Follow me on Twitter : Search @Conor_Patton

Like on Facebook : Search ConorPattonsBlog
Get involved in the SOPA debate on Twitter : Search #SOPA #STOPSOPA