SOPA/Protect IP Act
If you’re confused or don’t know about SOPA, now’s the time to get informed…
First, what exactly is SOPA, you ask? IT’s the Stop Online Piracy Act. Essentially, the bill was created to protect American intellectual property. If you try to re-distribute intellectual property that isn’t yours in America, you’ll likely get in trouble. But what about those people who live in Russia? Or are using a computer an island outside of American jurisdiction? It doesn’t matter if we charge them in a US court because our laws don’t apply to them.
While intentions were good, the vague language of SOPA will empower corporations to censor the internet. Which is not good. The bills passed would let the attorney general create a list of sites that were essentially blacklisted by search engines, service providers, payment providers, etc - WITHOUT a court hearing or trial. (Um hello, first amendment violation, anyone?!)
Here’s where it gets messy. Because the bill has been designed much like China’s system (though again, without the same intentions!), companies would be responsible for users’ actions. Well-put from an NY Times article, “The burden would be on the website operator to prove that the site was NOT being used for copyright infringement. The effect on user-generated sites like YouTube would be chilling.”
