SOPA and PIPA – The Internet’s Biggest Fight to Date?

SOPA and PIPA. The first looks like a typo of “soap,” and the latter seems like an enthusiastic fan of the Duchess of Cambridge’s sister Pipa Middleton. Neither look or sound like bills which could fundamentally disrupt how we use the web. Nor, do they sound any different from other proposed bills. Those who read technology blogs and follow similarly plugged in people on Twitter will have started to hear rumblings about the bill and its implications. Even the discord that was starting to bubble up the surface, which included articles and some television mentions couldn’t have prepared anyone for the combined and coordinated effort put forth by the largest names on the internet to help spread awareness. After today, it should have been hard to ignore, so much so that we couldn’t help but remark on the unique events that came together – Google with a black bar across its logo plus a link to sign a petition and Wikipedia blacking out its entire English pages for 24 hours.

Speaking of Wikipedia, they summarize the legislative scenario concisely saying, “SOPA and PIPA represent two bills in the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate respectively. SOPA is short for the "Stop Online Piracy Act," and PIPA is an acronym for the "Protect IP Act." ("IP" stands for "intellectual property.") In short, these bills are efforts to stop copyright infringement committed by foreign web sites, but, in our opinion, they do so in a way that actually infringes free expression while harming the Internet. Detailed information about these bills can be found in the Stop Online Piracy Act and PROTECT IP Act articles on Wikipedia, which are available during the blackout. GovTrack lets you follow both bills through the legislative process: SOPA on this page, and PIPA on this one. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to advocating for the public interest in the digital realm, has summarized why these bills are simply unacceptable in a world that values an open, secure, and free Internet.” They add, “Congress says it’s trying to protect the rights of copyright owners, but the ‘cure’ that SOPA and PIPA represent is worse than the disease. SOPA and PIPA are not the answer: they would fatally damage the free and open Internet.”

Here is what the EFF says,

In addition to going after websites allegedly directly involved in copyright infringement, a proposal in SOPA will allow the government to target sites that simply provide information that could help users get around the bills’ censorship mechanisms.

The “vigilante” provision, which would grant broad immunity to all service providers if they overblock innocent users or block sites voluntarily with no judicial oversight at all. Intermediaries only need to act “in good faith” and base their decision “on credible evidence” to receive immunity. The MPAA and RIAA to create literal blacklists of sites they want censored. Intermediaries will find themselves under pressure to act to avoid court orders, creating a vehicle for corporations to censor sites—even those in the U.S.—without any legal oversight.

PIPA and SOPA also still allow copyright holders to get an unopposed court order to cut off foreign websites from payment processors and advertisers. As we have continually highlighted, copyright holders already can remove infringing material from the web under the DMCA notice-and-takedown procedure

Anyone who writes or distributes Virtual Private Network, proxy, privacy or anonymization software would be negatively affected. This includes organizations that are funded by the State Department to create circumvention software to help democratic activists get around authoritarian regimes’ online censorship mechanisms. Ironically, SOPA would not only institute the same practices as these regimes, but would essentially outlaw the tools used by activists to circumvent censorship in countries like Iran and China as well.

PIPA and SOPA would also give the Attorney General new authority to block domain name service. The Attorney General would also be empowered to de-list websites from search engines.

As Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian explained, PIPA and SOPA are “the equivalent of being angry and trying to take action against Ford just because a Mustang was used in a bank robbery.” Adding that, "Congress Is Going To Obliterate An Entire Tech Industry."

That the past two administrations haven’t completely screwed up this country yet is a miracle, but were that their job, they are performing admirably. At least we know who to thank in 20 years time, when we are no longer the preeminent country in the world. We’ll thank them for their political global warming. Well done guys. Well done. In any event, back to the narrower but no less disappointing reason for wanting to criticize the government. They, as is the case with almost all government bodies, love acronyms. They also love to make it look like they are doing things, which usually means adding to the Jenga pile of their prior garbage instead of trying to make a more stable pile.

The government’s love of publishing and acronyms has a somnorific effect on the nation’s populace, ensuring that we ignore much of what is put out as well as ensuring we do not understand what it is about because of the self-pleasing name it was given. Such is the case with SOPA and PIPA. More cynically, and perhaps more accurately, these two bills represent specific big businesses, aka old Hollywood, who got clobbered by innovation, and still trying to compete. Yet again, they are doing so through the continued corruption of our political system. It’s ironic that the framework that has allowed for the country’s success is being attacked when it doesn’t work in the favor of certain businesses. For us, this battle is not just about the internet. It’s a new battle of church and state, not religion and politics but money and politics. The more money, the more you can control politics. The more you have the more you will keep, because only you can afford to fight. It’s another rule that squeezes the middle and lower class, just in a totally new way – in entrepreneurship.