The news site of Verona High School

The Fairviewer

The news site of Verona High School

The Fairviewer

The news site of Verona High School

The Fairviewer

Congress Debates Piracy Bill

Many students were left speechless and helpless on Wednesday, January 18, 2012 when they discovered that Wikipedia, a trusted and much-depended-on website of many worldwide had ‘blacked out.’

It was temporarily shut down in response to the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act, or, SOPA bill, which was recently debated in Congress.  It was introduced toward the end of October 2011 by House Representative Lamar S. Smith from Texas.  The Act, due to stirring much controversy, is currently shelved as it is in the process of modification.

SOPA is frequently associated with PIPA, the Protect IP Act, and both are aimed at preventing copyright infringement on the World Wide Web.  SOPA is more extreme than PIPA, because it specifically attacks foreign web sites that infringe copyrighted material.  This broad category encompasses music, text, and so forth. It is ultimately an attempt at abolishing piracy on the internet in the United States. Under SOPA, for example, if someone leaves an ‘illegal’ link onto another’s blog, the entire blog would be taken down until the issue was settled in court, which could span months.

Organizations and companies including Wikipedia, eBay, and Google have been establishing a statement in which they openly disagree with SOPA. GoDaddy.com, a website that allows users to establish personal websites under fees, had expressed support of SOPA and was immediately criticized by the public. It has since removed that statement in favor of SOPA’s ultimate rejection, in order to attract customers once more.

Many, especially teenagers who grew up and consistently use web sites that are now considered ‘at risk’ under SOPA, are appalled and have made it their duty to protest it. Petitions have circulated the internet since SOPA’s surfacing, and people are urging one another to contact representatives in Congress in opposition. One of the main concerns of those against SOPA is that it restrains the First Amendment, which grants U.S. citizens the freedom of speech.

People who oppose SOPA generally feel as if all file sharing would be targeted, even if absolutely legal, and that their resources and creativity are restrained under the risk of copyright infringement. One question floating around concerns how false accusations would be handled, and how enforcers of SOPA would identify false claims, which has not been addressed.

UMKC Law professor Jasmine Abdel-Khalik, in an interview with Fox4kc says that “copyrighting gives incentives for creativity, but protecting a copyright should not be to the detriment of free speech or business.”

SOPA supporters are primarily companies that are looking for ways to enforce laws of copyright infringement and avenge possible lost business opportunities to those who posted content illegally. As NewsOne put it, SOPA “would give content owners the ability to actually shut down websites that they believe violate their copyright…[It would provide that the federal justice department] force search engines from linking to sites that were accused of copyright infringement and require Internet providers to block those sites as well.”

Many view SOPA as harmful and as a way to censor the internet, and a joke among its critics is to refer to it as “SOPA-thetic.” The Act is even being compared to China and other countries where the internet is truly censored. This view is much different compared to its creators, who basically want to protect American web sites and goods from being harmed from foreign ones.

After the massive internet blackout protest that included Wikipedia’s effort, many representatives suddenly shifted their support, mostly in favor of the ‘death’ of the bill.  SOPA was slowed down and withdrawn by Lamar Smith, its creator, so that it could be modified to stir more defense against internet copyright infringement.

Leave a Comment
More to Discover

Comments (0)

All The Fairviewer Picks Reader Picks Sort: Newest

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.