There has been a recent uproar concerning two anti-piracy bills, SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Act). Many websites, including notable sites like Google and Wikipedia, protested this past Wednesday by blacking out their sites, showing the potential future of the web if these bills were passed. PIPA has already been approved by a senate committee and is now awaiting approval before the full senate. However, SOPA is losing steam as the mass protests have managed to delay its passing.
Both SOPA and PIPA are bills aimed at halting copyright infringement. However, their methods are ineffective according to Lifehacker.com. The bills are designed to make it possible for companies to block the domain names of websites that either encourage, or seem capable of copyright infringement. However, this method is ineffective because if a web domain is blocked it can be accessed through their numeric IP address. There are also tools out on the web that can automatically route domain names to their IP addresses. However, IP blocking measures have been removed from the bills.
The other main point of both bills would allow rights holders to cut funding to any website that may be violating a copyright. This would force any companies who are doing business with these sites to cease their advertising on the accused site, causing a heavy effect on online advertising and hurting the internet market.
According to Lifehacker.com, there is one major difference between SOPA and PIPA. SOPA would target any site contributing or facilitating copyright infringement while PIPA requires the site have no significant use beyond copyright infringement. These bills present a problem to websites like Reddit and Wikipedia who rely heavily on user-generated material. These websites could be shut down if they are found guilty of copyright infringement. The freedom of the internet is put at risk by these bills.
Several students have already signed up to protest the bill, and with backing from major websites, and President Obama, SOPA has been postponed until the bill has more defined borders. PIPA, on the other hand, is still being pushed forward by the senate. This debate is sure to be ongoing, but if you would like to protest the bill go to sopastrike.com/strike.
Sources:
http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/19/tech/sopa-blackouts/index.html?hpt=us_c2
http://lifehacker.com/5860205