For those who work in the digital world, defending against copyright infringement has been an ongoing battle; one with constantly evolving and elusive battle lines. So, on its face, H.R.3261–otherwise know as SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act)–introduced in the US House of Representatives on 10-26-11 would offer a possible solution. The bill is designed “To promote prosperity, creativity, entrepreneurship, and innovation by combating the theft of U.S. property, and for other purposes.” However, opponents rail against what they consider possible censorship and draconian penalties, with limited channels through which to address grievances. Both sides argue that their stance improves opportunities for the millions of people whose livelihoods depend on the creation of digital content.
Proponents of the bill argue in favor of protecting the rights of intellectual property creators, by penalizing hosts who offer a platform to individuals or companies that provide access to copyrighted materials without permission. This includes posted content, links, advertising, etc. According to the sponsors, this bill only expands existing authority–which covers domestic websites–to include foreign sites. If you’d like to read the text of the bill, along with more information provided by the sponsors, click here.
Opponents contend that the bill’s passage would hinder freedom of speech, although about the only thing I could understand in the otherwise incomprehensible language of the bill, was the statement, “Nothing in this Act shall be construed to impose a prior restraint on free speech or the press protected under the 1st Amendment to the Constitution.” However, the baffling legalese in the remaining 3,000+ words may contain loopholes. Opponents also indicate that the bill would hold site owners accountable for all posted content, resulting in undue punishment for behavior over which they may have little or no control. The web is nearly buried under an avalanche of opposition opinions, but the website, netCoalition.com represents many of the Internet heavy hitters, and provides an apparently legitimate forum to opponents of the bill.
Those who favor passage, say that much of the criticism is unfounded; advanced by people with an agenda, or by those who simply misunderstand. According to Lamar Smith, the bill’s sponsor “Their concerns are based on speculation and hyperbole, rather than reality. There is no language that would criminalize actions by domestic political bloggers. There is nothing that would require Internet service providers or bloggers to ‘censor’ the Internet.”
Rumors are circulating about a possible retaliatory “Internet blackout” by such web giants as Google, Facebook, and Amazon, among others. This would supposedly result in their home pages being temporarily replaced with a black screen, requesting users to petition representatives to oppose the bill.
The bill is scheduled to be brought before the House for debate on January 24th.
~Kevin
Tags: in the news, sopa
Timely Tip….thanks.
This bill’s primary purpose is twofold. One is to give congress the authority to control the net therefore taxing it. Second is so the dirty congresscritters can stop bloggers and others from saying things they don’t like, i.e. telling the truth about what congress and the other parts of the government is up to. Congress could not care less about anyone’s rights under the First or any other Amendment.
after all the sole purpose in life of any congrescritter is to get re-elected. You can tell that by their two-word vocabulary: Re-Elect Me, Re-elect Me, Re-elect Me.
Odd, how members of Congress are working so dillegently on the S.O.P.A bill to stop piracy, ie; D/L illegal material; music, movies ect. and yet at the same time a websight that monitors IP address that are downloading illgeal ‘content’ traced 800+ IP address to members of congress/government downloading pirated material while writing the bill to stop the general public from commiting such an act. SO what that says to me is THEY write the laws that only pertain to US (the general public) BUT these “laws” that are being written don’t apply to members of congress and or government in general. SO the government thinks they are *aboave the law* ?! seriously? what’s wrong with this picture…. >Epic FAIL!<
[...] essentially “censor the web” and completely shut down numerous sites. (more on SOPA here)You may have noticed some of the Internet’s heavy hitters were “blacked out” on [...]