SOPA and PIPA: What Do They Really Stand For?

There has been an immense amount of talk lately about two seemingly benign acronyms–SOPA and PIPA. They sound harmless, right? Wrong. With the introduction of SOPA and PIPA, came many opponents. One may ask, “What is wrong with attempting to stop online piracy and protect our intellectual property?” The simple answer to this is “Nothing.” However, the ultimate question really ends up being, “To what length and extent will studios, record labels, and our government go to cease online thievery? Unfortunately, this answer is unknown. 

SOPA, an acronym for Stop Online Piracy Act, and PIPA, an acronym for Protect Intellectual Property Act, are two recent United States bills that have been introduced by U.S. Representatives like Lamar S. Smith to strengthen the power of U.S. law enforcement to combat trafficking in copyrighted intellectual property and counterfeit goods. Many claim that although these bills sound as if they are protecting us, they are instead infringing upon our First Amendment right to “free speech.” In attempts to prevent and cease future online piracy of copyrighted material, some have proposed allotting the federal government power to shut down websites without due process, and to control our greatest mode of free speech ever invented–the internet. Shrouded in seemingly upstanding and honorable goals, SOPA and PIPA would, in reality, grant government power it should not have and debatably present a large threat to our First Amendment rights. 

Proponents of SOPA and PIPA explicate that this legislation will ultimately protect the intellectual property market and corresponding industry, employees, and revenue. Supporters claim that such legislation is essential to strengthening enforcement of copyright laws. Asserting that there are immanent faults in current legislation regarding online piracy, supporters of SOPA and PIPA state that better enforcement laws are necessary, especially regarding those of foreign owned and operated sites. 

In contrast, opponents contend that SOPA and PIPA do, in fact, threaten free speech and the creation of new ideas, and allows our government to hinder our access to entire internet sites due to pirated material written on a single post or webpage. Opponents declare that enforcing search engines to delete a domain name may begin a universal arms race of unprecedented censorship of the Web. 

Evidently, the introduction of these two bills have sparked an incredibly heated debate, causing controversy between the government and the people. Within the past couple of weeks there has been an immense amount of backlash from opponents. Such backlash has ignited protests, blackouts, and even the introduction of alternative legislation to the House. On January 18, 2012, an estimated 10,000 websites went dark, and more than 7 million people signed a Google.com petition opposing these two controversial copyright enforcement bills. Opponents of the bill have now proposed the Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade Act (OPEN) as an alternative. Currently, all legislation is at a standstill in the House, as both the House and the Senate are attempting to ease the bitter controversy that have caused. However, we are all wondering, “What’s next?”