SOPA, PIPA: What you need to know
Having trouble using Wikipedia today? That's because the popular crowd-sourced online encyclopedia is participating in an "Internet blackout" in protest of two controversial anti-piracy bills: The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and its Senate companion, the Protect IP Act (PIPA).
Pictures: Websites go dark to protest SOPA
The bills are intended to strengthen protections against copyright infringement and intellectual property theft, but Internet advocates say they would stifle expression on the World Wide Web. In essence, the legislation has pitted content providers -- like the music and film industries -- against Silicon Valley. CBS Corporation is among the media and entertainment companies that support the legislation.
"It's not a battle of left versus right," said progressive activist Adam Green, whose organization Progressive Change Campaign Committee on Tuesday hosted a press conference with opponents of the bills. "Frankly, it's a battle of old versus new."
Here's a basic look at the actions taking place today and the legislation causing all the fuss.
What's going on today?
The popular link-sharing site Reddit got the ball rolling for today's 24-hour Internet blackout. In addition to Reddit and Wikipedia, other sites participating include BoingBoing, Mozilla, WordPress, TwitPic, MoveOn.org and the ICanHasCheezBurger network. Search giant Google is showing its solidarity with a protest doodle and message: "Tell Congress: Please don't censor the web," but the site planned no complete blackout.
Other sites -- like Facebook and Twitter -- oppose the legislation in question but aren't participating in today's blackout.
In addition to the Internet-based protests, some opponents are physically protesting on Wednesday outside of their congressional representatives' offices. Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian said in Tuesday's press conference it will "probably be the geekiest, most rational protest ever."
What does the legislation do?
There are already laws that protect copyrighted material, including the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). But while the DMCA focuses on removing specific, unauthorized content from the Internet, SOPA and PIPA instead target the platform -- that is, the site hosting the unauthorized content.
The bills would give the Justice Department the power to go after foreign websites willfully committing or facilitating intellectual property theft -- "rogue" sites like The Pirate Bay. The government would be able to force U.S.-based companies, like Internet service providers, credit card companies and online advertisers, to cut off ties with those sites.
Why content providers want SOPA and PIPA
Content groups like the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), and business representatives like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, argue that innovation and jobs in content-creating industries are threatened by growing Internet piracy. Overseas websites, they argue, are a safe haven for Internet pirates profiting off their content.
According to the Global Intellectual Property Center, which is part of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, intellectual property-intensive sectors employ more than 19 million people in the U.S. and create $7.7 trillion in gross output. Foreign website operators currently outside the bounds of U.S. law; SOPA and PIPA would help quell illegitimate Internet activity.
In a statement, former Sen. Chris Dodd, who is now chairman and CEO of the MPAA, called the blackout day a "gimmick."
"It's a dangerous and troubling development when the platforms that serve as gateways to information intentionally skew the facts to incite their users in order to further their corporate interests," Dodd said.
CBS Corporation, which owns CBSNews.com, is a member of the Copyright Alliance -- an industry group representing content producers that supports SOPA and PIPA.
Why Internet companies oppose SOPA and PIPA
Internet companies and their investors would readily say that they're holding the "blackout" to protect their corporate interests -- and the entire burgeoning Internet-based economy.
"The success of Reddit... is one of the smaller examples of the success that has happened in our industry -- and will continue to unless bills like SOPA or PIPA become law," Ohanian said Tuesday.
Under the rules SOPA or PIPA would impose, Ohanian and others argue, start ups wouldn't be able to handle the costs that come with defending their sites against possible violations. Such sites would not be able to pay the large teams of lawyers that established sites like Google or Facebook can afford.
The legislation in question targets foreign companies whose primary purpose is to sell stolen or counterfeit goods -- but opponents say domestic companies could still be held liable for linking to their content. While sites like Reddit wouldn't have a legal duty to monitor their sites all the time, "you might have your pants sued off of you" if you don't, said Jayme White, staff director for the Senate Finance Subcommittee on international trade.
Brad Burnham, managing partner at the venture capital fund Union Square Ventures, said his company has avoided investing in companies related to the music industry because of the copyright risks -- but under the proposed legislation, that risk would hit just about any Internet company. SOPA and PIPA, he said, "takes the risk of frivolous litigation... to the entire Internet."
That should be a concern, Burnham said, when the Internet accounts for 21 percent of economic growth among developed nations, according to one study.
The impacts could go beyond the economy, some argue. Rebecca MacKinnon, a senior fellow at the nonpartisan New America Foundation, argues that if blogging platforms are motivated to monitor their content, that could have "a tremendous chilling effect on people tyring to conduct political discourse and trying to use content in a fair use context."
Where does the legislation stand?
Opponents of SOPA and PIPA celebrated when, earlier this month, authors of both bills decided to set aside the most controversial aspect of them -- language that would have let the Justice Department force Internet Service Providers to block the domains of suspected foreign "rogue" sites. Also, over the weekend, the White House suggested it wants to see modifications to the legislation.
The Senate is scheduled to hold a procedural vote on PIPA on January 24.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, who sponsored SOPA, said Tuesday he expects the committee to continue work on the House bill in February.
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., meanwhile, is opposed to the legislation and will today officially introduce an alternative -- the Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade (OPEN) Act. Issa said Tuesday he expects his bill to have more co-sponsors than SOPA has in the House and that "once members of Congress see a viable alternative... I think we can get to a consensus."
The OPEN Act would make the International Trade Commission, rather than the Justice Department, responsible for policing U.S. connections to foreign rogue sites. Placing that responsibility in the hands of one entity, rather than the whole court system, would make the process more transparent, Issa argues.
Websites go dark to protest SOPA
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Some of the congress members supporting those bills and/or action have been found to copyrighted material in their own official websites, and they didn't even know it! If you took a picture of your family in any town, most likely in the background there is at least one copyrighted advertising slogan in the picture. As the News reporters go through cities with film crews, all of them can be targeted for the same reason. Even saying or typing a quote from a movie or song could be charged as a copyright violation. Copyright violations happen continually every day just be...cause there is so much copyrighted material out there. You and me most likely do it all the time and don't even know it!
"Copyright may apply to a wide range of creative, intellectual, or artistic forms, or "works". Specifics vary by jurisdiction, but these can include poems, theses, plays, other literary works, movies, dances, musical compositions, audio recordings, paintings, drawings, sculptures, photographs, software, radio and television broadcasts, and industrial designs. Graphic designs and industrial designs may have separate or overlapping laws applied to them in some jurisdictions."
That section above is a direct copy from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, web site http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright. As such, it could be used legally as a Copyright violation, if not fotr the fact Wikipedia allows for this.
The chances of a website of any type not having copyrighted material in it someplace, or linked in some way is very, very remote. Even important official government websites have copyrighted material in them.
I would be impossible for any of those legal actions to remove all copyrighted material from the internet. As it is, I bet it could be used to target over 90% of the internet Websites. As they couldn't shut down that much of the internet without very, very badly hurting us, it would have to be used for selective enforcement.
But who is going to ones selecting the enforcement of that legal action? As there is no notice, no trial, in the way there are written, the person or organization targeted wouldn't even know they are targeted until their wbesite vanished from the internet. Selective enforcement like that is far too easy to use for censorship, and as it copyrighted material is everywhere, it could used against any type of organization a person or group wanted to target.
All those legal actions, since they have such huge possible target for selective enforcement, would be be perfect for censorship. IT WOULD BE USED (NOT MIGHT) FOR CENSORSHIP, BECAUSE IT IS FAR EASY TO DO IT BECAUSE THE WAY THOSE LAWS ARE WRITTEN, AND MANY ORGANIZATIONS WOULD LOVE TO USE IT FOR THAT, GROUPS THAT HAVE DONE FAR WORST THINGS THAN THAT BEFORE.
Viewed correctly, these organizations are actually subversive, in that their sole aim is to destroy the freedoms of the general population in able to fortify their own greed. Clearly, the MPAA and RIAA should be labeled as such and what is required is a bill to do exactly that. Given the recent mood and demonstrations by the Internet community, such a bill would have wide support to be sure. Perhaps, an appropriate acronym for such a bill is SMOG for Stop Media Organizations' Greed.
The correct way to stop online piracy is to fairly price the media. A DVD or CD costs today, essentially the same or more than it did decades ago - while everything else electronic is a small fraction of its original price. The only thing justifying these outrageous prices is pure ravenousness for money and power. Indeed, given all the issues before Congress, issues that are truly immediate and urgent, one might question if the influence of those members sponsoring SOPA and PIPA has been bought and paid for. Follow the money.
Pirate sites can be viewed in the greater picture as market competition - that arises as a counter to the monopolies created by the RIAA and MPAA trusts. If the cost of media were reasonable, few people would pay for the bandwidth to download anything. Indeed, those people, who wish to download media at fair prices from offshore sites, will find ways to evade any efforts to block access to any site, or track downloaded data. Such laws will always be obsolete before they are passed. The only sure way to stop online piracy is to stop the extortion and power grab of the MPAA and RIAA first.
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When Dodd called the blackout day a "gimmick," and said "It's a dangerous and troubling development when the platforms that serve as gateways to information intentionally skew the facts to incite their users in order to further their corporate interests," he sounds like he doesn't know what he is talking about when he is trying to make it out like WE don't know what we're talking about when we join this kind of protest.
Dear sir, I am not an idiot, nor a sheep who just follows the crowd. I know what's going on, and I know that SOPA and PIPA are the wrong way to deal with Piracy issues. This is a slippery slope situation, where if these acts become law, we're looking at an Orwellian future where the government will be controlling citizens' every move and thought. People should not fear their government, the government should fear its people.
Carry on protestors, make your voices heard and let the government know, we WILL NOT stand for this sort of suppression.
I first learned of SOPA and PIPA a few months ago. The prospects of thwarting the efforts of behemoths like Disney and CBS seemed dismal at the time. Everyone assumed that these bills were a slam dunk and we would all have to bow, once again, to the power of multinational corporate greed.
I blacked-out all of my websites. The few hundred visitors that frequent them seemed to support the effort. I lost only one subscriber from my mailing list. I salute the subscriber who left because that person exercised the right that I was fighting for - the right to get uncensored information and to choose for him/herself what to do with that information.
Defeating SOPA - PIPA pales in comparison to what is an historic event; THE GREAT BLACKOUT of 2012. The blackout was a demonstration of the FIRST EVER TRULY FREE PRESS - internet bloggers, website publishers , search engines, social networks, classified advertising, and the average day to day guy with a Facebook page - in unison, took down the what is arguably among the most powerful lobbies in Washington - the music and film industry.
Whether you support or oppose SOPA - PIPA you should be in awe of what has happened in the last three days.
This is democracy at its finest.
Long live the people.
Dan Laget
The Campus Herald