Penguin Generation

Enough with the intros. I’m sure most if not all of you have seen or heard of the blackouts today, 1/18/12. For those who don’t know what’s going on, these blackouts are to protest the House’s Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Senate’s Protect IP Act (PIPA). Entertainment and computer software publishing companies have been pressuring the U.S. government for years to find some method of stopping the online piracy which allows people to get free copies of their merchandise. That’s fine; nobody who works hard at something would want people to gain free access to it in such a way. While the core idea of these bills—stopping online piracy—are good, the bills themselves are not the answer. The effects of these bills will not only attack the liberty of American citizens like [some of] you and me, but may not even effectively stop online piracy.

Let’s breakdown both of these bills, starting with the first bill introduced, PIPA. PIPA stands for Protect IP Act, and was first introduced to the U.S. Senate on May 12, 2011. It is a re-written legislation, the original being the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA) which failed to pass in 2010. PIPA will give U.S. corporations and the government the right to seek affirmative legal action with any website that they see as enabling copyright infringement. This can be done even if the website is not of U.S. origin. They will have the power to force U.S. internet providers to block access to websites deemed as enablers of copyright infringement. They will have the power to seek legal action by suing search engines, blog sites, directories, or any site in general to have the black listed sites removed from their website. They will have the power to force advertising services on infringing websites and those supporting of them to remove them from their advertising accounts. They will also have the power to sue any new websites that get started after this bill is passed, if they believe that the websites are not doing a good job of preventing infringement on their website.

Next we have SOPA, the more well-known of the two bills. SOPA is an acronym for the Stop Online Piracy Act, and is a bill introduced to the U.S. House of Representatives on October 26, 2011. SOPA, like PIPA, is a re-written legislation, the original being the failed-to-pass PRO-IP Act of 2008. SOPA isn’t really anything more than the U.S. government’s and these private corporations’ blacklist. SOPA will allow the U.S. Attorney General to seek a court order that would force search engines, advertisers, DNS providers, servers, and payment processors to refrain from having any contact with allegedly infringing websites. It will allow private corporations to create their own personal hit lists composed of websites they feel are breaking their copyright policies. These companies will be able to directly contact a website’s payment processors with a notice to cut all off payment involvement with the targeted website. These payment processors and the website in question will then have five days to act before it is simply taken down. Payment processors will have the power to cut off any website they work with, as long as they can provide a reason of why they believe this site is violating copyrights.

If these bills are passed, the U.S. government could order the blocking of sites using methods similar to those employed by China. Law-abiding U.S. internet companies would have to monitor everything users link to or upload or face the risk of time-consuming litigation. To make matters worse, SOPA and PIPA won’t even work. The censorship regulations written into these bills won’t shut down pirate sites. These sites will just change their addresses and continue their criminal activities, while law-abiding companies will suffer high penalties for breaches they can’t possibly control. These bills pose a serious risk to innovation and job-creation. Many fear these bills, if passed, will stifle investment in Internet services, throttle innovation, and hurt American competitiveness.

For those who don’t understand or care, SOPA and PIPA can and will affect you. The internet will become a hunt for any little bit of possible copyright violation. These acts make it so the blog owners are responsible for everything that is displayed on their site, including the comments of visitors. This has an even more significant effect on forum owners. These acts are stopping developers from coming up with the next big thing in the online market that could change how we use the internet. If SOPA and PIPA were in effect many years ago, how many of the most popular sites would still have come into fruition? Probably none. There would be no Facebook, YouTube, MediaFire, WordPress, Twitter, DropBox, or any other site that can be targeted as a place where online piracy could take place.

Here’s an example using a fictitious girl named Alice. Alice is 8 years old. It is quite oblivious Alice has not been given permission from record label executives to sing her favorite song and then post it on a video sharing website like YouTube. Say that’s exactly what Alice does. Will that be a problem for the record executives? Absolutely not. The site the Alice posted the video on will be put under pressure to resolve this issue, or face their site being put on the blacklist. Alice and her family could also very well face legal action with either the site or the record label of the song that was sung.\

Both acts involve the use of DNS filtering which is believed by many to have the possibly to weaken web security. The majority of the tech world believes that using DNS filtering will open up more security risks and slow down the system’s up and coming extension, DNSSEC. In the end, they would do little to stop online piracy. DNS experts say the filters are easily evaded and would be of minimal help when it comes to cutting down on copyright infringement online.

SOPA and PIPA are an attack on liberty. These acts hand the government the power to remove websites—almost at will. It puts all the responsibility on the website owners which will impede innovation. Most importantly, this is the United States government’s push towards socialism. SOPA and PIPA are attacks on freedom and a push towards a government-controlled America—socialized America.

If you don’t live in America, don’t think you’re in the clear. The U.S. government officials and private corporations aren’t only concerned about how these bills will work out in America, they are hoping that they will have the influence to get other nations to follow suit with these acts passing. That means if these acts pass, then the next country they might be coming toward may be your’s.

There are a number of ways to get involved, voice your opinions, and fight against SOPA (and PIPA, too). Calling your state senator is an important way to voice your opinion. Though the Senator can vote anyway he chooses, they will often vote what the majority says he should vote (in effort to be reelected ). Of course, that’s not always the case, but there’s no way he’ll know what the people want unless they call. You can also sign online petitions (you don’t have to be a citizen to do this) to fight against SOPA and PIPA. Click here to sign one of the many petitions out there (opens a new window). Also, stay informed. Being unaware of what is going on only allows for acts like these to pass through without anyone knowing. Being an informed individual about what is going on in the political world only makes you more capable of being an advocate for positive change.

~Powerflare

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