I’m sure if you were surfing the Internet the past few days, you’ve noticed changes in some pretty popular websites. The Google logo is blacked out, and Tumblr and Wikipedia users are blocking their posts and telling everyone to contact their senators. Topics like #SOPAthetic and #stopSOPA are trending on Twitter. Everyone’s Facebook newsfeeds are full of statuses about acronyms you’ve never heard of before. Even Pinterest has a pop up when you first sign on their website. So what ‘s all the fuss over?
Starting this past Tuesday, the worldwide web “Blackout” began. Facebookers, bloggers, tweeters, and YouTubers all over the U.S. blacked out their websites in protest of the SOPA and PIPA bills proposed by the House and the Senate. SOPA stands for Stop Online Piracy Act and PIPA stands for Protect IP Act. Still confused? Don’t worry, I was too until I looked up exactly what these bills would do if they were to be passed.
Supposedly, these anti-piracy bills are supposed to protect a website’s copyrighted material such as music, pictures, movies, etc. from being used in foreign countries. But it doesn’t stop there. This would keep search engines, such as Google and Bing, from linking so-called “pirated” material from websites to their search engine. The government created SOPA and PIPA to basically shut down anything suspected to be pirated or taken from another site.
So now you might be asking, “How will SOPA and PIPA affect me?” The fact that such prevalent websites like Google and Wikipedia are against these two bills shows how much impact they will have on our daily Internet use. Google pleads, “Stop piracy, not liberty.” Granted, there are a lot of people who illegally download movies and music, which is indeed piracy, but if these bills are passed it will destroy not only those bad sites, but the good ones too. If you have a blog, it is liable to be shut down if the government believes you are violating copyright laws. This means using pictures you found on Google Images or another blog or creating links leading to other websites. Any site where you can post comments, repost pictures, videos, or music could be considered illegal and pirated. You can even be sued for being suspected of using or distributing this “pirated” material. This doesn’t mean creating illegal music sharing websites or selling movies that are still in theatres on the Internet. This means that pretty much anything with user-generated content is likely to get shut down by our government. So you can say goodbye to Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, Stumbleupon and YouTube. If you want to re-pin a picture of a cute puppy in a tutu, too bad. If you want to comment on the new Jenna Marbles YouTube video, think again. And don’t even think about retweeting a hilarious quote from TotalSratMove. Can you say invasion of privacy? As you can see, these bills are a direct infringement on our freedom of speech and our freedom of press.
Now that you know the whole story, you can form your own opinion. But if you really want to help, contact your senator, black out your website, write letters, blog, tweet, do whatever it takes to express your opinion so you can protect your inalienable rights from being taken away. What do you think about the new laws?