Some of the biggest names on the internet went black or censored parts of their content on Wednesday to protest two controversial pieces of legislation in Congress, SOPA and PIPA. The bills are aimed at stopping online piracy and to protect intellectual property rights but opponents say the bills will lead to the government and large corporations having control over the internet as we know it. With such far reaching implications, one has to ask the question: Why were we not talking about this earlier?
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What is SOPA and PIPA?
The SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) in congress as well as the PIPA (Protect IP Act), if passed, will allow record labels and movie studios to go after internet companies that they deem as being in violation of copyright laws.
Chris Heald over at Mashing.com did a nice job dissecting SOPA and putting the salient parts in terms that don’t need a law degree to understand. Here are the highlights:
- Gives the Attorney General (i.e. the US government) broad and sweeping powers to censor foreign websites
- Any site that ‘allows’ its users to post copyrighted content (think YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) can be fined, punished, and shutdown or blocked
- Makes it a felony to post copyrighted material
So what does that mean for you and I?
If you video yourself singing happy birthday to your friends and post it on Facebook, according to the new rules, you are now a felon and Facebook can also be held liable because they allowed copyrighted material to be posted.
Now, you might be thinking, “They won’t sue me over singing a song. I am small potatoes.” Just ask this 12 year old girl who was sued for downloading TV theme songs how small potatoes you might be.
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Why has there not been outrage so far?
The folks over at the Huffington Post might have hit the nail on the head.
“The legislation is aggressively backed by Hollywood movie studios and major record labels, along with several major news providers, including Fox News and NBC-Universal, which have largely shied away from coverage of the bill.”
It was in their best interest not to cover the story. Despite being rivals otherwise, NBC and Fox can find common ground on one issue – legislation that can help pad their pockets.
To be fair, Google and other internet leaders are not small companies either. There is a profit motive for them in defeating SOPA/PIPA. But that’s ok in my book. So long as they continue to support our freedom of speech and continue to fight for the internet to be an open and free place to share knowledge and ideals, they will have my support.
Here is a video that sums up why it is important for all of us to fight back and help protect the voice that the internet gives us all.
PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.
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