SOPA and PIPA

"The Stop Online Piracy Act will change the Internet as we know it in an effort to censor and block the free flow of information. You would no longer be able to share, link to or post any videos, sounds or images on sites like Youtube Twitter and Facebook that have not been personally created by you! We have reached a fork in the road in regards to the direction the Internet will go and we must do everything we can to make sure it continues down the path of being neutral open and free."/ Press for thruth.


No one owns the Internet! ­If passed, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA) would allow the government to block search engine links to any website which may contain what is perceived as copyright material and would without a doubt affect people outside the US – their ability to share information between sites and to collaborate widely from all over the world would be seriously obstructed. The bills, which are perhaps the most controversial pieces of proposed legislation in recent American history, were supposedly written to protect copyrighted material but Internet campaigners say they could cripple the Internet as we know it, effectively killing all websites allowing user-uploaded content, endangering potential whistleblowers and severely damaging online freedom of speech. So if you’re sitting there reading this, with some cash in your pocket and a website where someone may have posted something that may lead to something else that is potentially suspicious – expect the might of the US security and legal systems to knock – or bust through your door. They might not even have a warrant, having convenient access to the so-called ‘sneak-and-peak’ granted by the Patriot Act. Of course, those were "created to capture terrorists", but we may all soon be branded as such because of a YouTube search.


What is unfolding here?


­SOPA and PIPA have not even made it to the Senate floor, but have already caused public outrage. Internet giants such as Google, YouTube, Yahoo, AOL, Wikimedia, Twitter, Facebook, eBay, Mozilla and many others have likened the bills to China-style censorship. The idea behind these bills sounds reasonable. They came about in order to try and snuff out piracy online, as the entertainment industry is obviously not excited that many people are downloading their products without payment or permission. The issue is, however, that the methods are ineffective. Here's why they're problematic. SOPA and PIPA opponents are so upset about is that the bills are not specific enough, that they’re heaping all Internet users together and branding them as one step short of evil, instead of clearly defining what constitutes an illegal activity and how it can realistically be battled. The passing of the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, could very well scrub the Internet clean of any content that the US government considers questionable. Under the legislation, websites and people that post or share third-party content could be crushed with heavy fines and imprisoned for the distribution of knowledge. Both bills are aimed at foreign websites that infringe copyrighted material. Originally, both bills provided two methods for fighting copyright infringement on foreign websites. In one method, the U.S. Department of Justice could seek court orders requiring Internet service providers to block the domain names of infringing sites. The other tool would allow rights holders to seek court orders requiring payment providers, advertisers, and search engines to stop doing business with an infringing site. In other words, rights holders would be able to request that funding be cut off from an infringing site, and that search links to that site be removed. Opponents of SOPA and PIPA believe that neither piece of legislation does enough to protect against false accusations. Sites that host user-generated content will be under pressure to closely monitor users' behavior.

Internet Wars

Following a wildly successful protest against SOPA and PIPA internet censorship legislation, the Department of Justice “conducted a major action” and shuttered MegaUpload, a popular file-sharing site accused of trading in copyrighted movies and televisions shows. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, which defends free speech and digital rights online, said in a statement that, “This kind of application of international criminal procedures to Internet policy issues sets a terrifying precedent. If the United States can seize a Dutch citizen in New Zealand over a copyright claim, what is next?” Megaupload is one of many highly visited websites that allows users to upload any media of their choice that might be too large for traditional online distribution. In lieu of email and instant messaging, users of Megaupload and similar sites can upload massive digital files and then pass the link to others across the world for easy download. The website claims that it has always been diligent in handling complaints regarding pirated material, but authorities have taken Megaupload offline while they investigate. Following action by a grand jury, the feds arrested four people and executed more than 20 search warrants in the United States and eight foreign countries. They seized 18 domain names and around $10 million in assets, including a number of servers.The grand jury indictment accuses Megaupload of causing $500 million in damages to copyright owners and of making $175 million through selling ads and premium subscriptions, according to the New York Times.The conspicuously timed raid “on Megaupload Thursday proved that the feds don’t need SOPA or its sister legislation, PIPA, in order to pose a blow to the Web,” writes the AnonOps Communications blog. Fifteen minutes after Megaupload disappeared from the internet, the hacker group Anonymous launched denial of service attack on websites run by Universal Music, the Department of Justice, the FBI, the Copyright Office, the Motion Picture Association of America, and the Recording Industry Association of America. The attack, which managed to take down the targets, some for several hours, was reportedly the largest such effort by the group in years, with some 5,600 activists collaborating. Anonymous maintained the blackout was just part of a larger assault on those they blame for attacking Internet freedoms. The group has not admitted responsibility for attacking US federal government institutions, although it did target those of Iran, Australia and Sweden on various occasions. The assault may call for a tougher-than-usual reaction from the US authorities.

Both bills have taken a hit in the last week, as their authors have decided to remove the provisions that require Internet service providers to block the domain names of infringing sites. SOPA, which has yet to pass out of the House Judiciary Committee, is reportedly stalled, as lawmakers continue to work on the bill. Representative Darrell Issa (R-California) has proposed an alternative bill that is far more narrow in its focus.