Let's say that one day you wake up, have breakfast, maybe watch a little TV or go to the store, then get on your computer, hoping to see what all of your facebook friends are up to. Upon entering the URL in however you find you can't reach it. The government has put a country-wide block on it. A little confused you switch over to Youtube, but no, that too is blocked. What is going on? The answer: SOPA
Last night my brother told me about this bill called SOPA that they're trying to get passed through congress soon. SOPA stands for the Stop Online Piracy Act, which sounds pretty good. However, it's not as nice as it sounds. If the bill passes it gives power to the government to be able to stop Americans from visiting specific sites that has user-posted content. This means that sites like Youtube, Deviantart, Wikimedia, and yes, even Facebook could be affected. The bills aim is to stop 'Rogue Sites', which are websites located off shore that the American government can't touch because it isn't within jurisdiction.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, one of the main three that support this bill, say that "Rogue Web sites that steal America's innovative and creative products attract more than 53 billion visits a year and threaten more than 19 million American jobs." (http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-57329001-281/how-sopa-would-affect-you-faq/) Their argument is that criminals are selling counterfeit products using rogue products and this bill will help protect U.S. citizens from these people. Like before, this is sounding like an okay bill. I wouldn't want some stranger from another country stealing my money!
This doesn't seem to be all that the bill affects however. The government isn't specifically targeting the people who threaten to steal your money; that just isn't how it works. The only way they can see to properly protect you is to block all websites that could possibly have copyrighted content.
As a normal person who typically understands little when first reading through anything written in political/legal talk, copyrighted content means not using a video or picture that isn't mine and saying it is. It goes a lot farther than that though. If you go on deviantart and see that somebody has hand painted a portrait of your favorite cartoon characters and is auctioning it off they could get in trouble for selling copyrighted content. In movies when an actor or actress says the name of a celebrity, unrelated to the movie, or even if a television show is playing in the background they must first get permission to use them because their names have been copyrighted. Basically the use of any copyrighted content in any form to make a profit is illegal. The 'Fair Use' policy allows the use copyrighted material in non-profit educational, or commercial use. Reproducing or using copyrighted material for criticising, commenting, reporting(like news and blogs), teaching, scholarships, and/or research falls under the Fair Use policy and is okay.
Returning to the issues at hand, the government of the United States would like to put a stop to people who are based in countries more lax on copyright infringement. If this is the goal, then I can't blame them for wanting to put a stop to it. Although, given that SOPA seems to be able to umbrella out to cover sites containing possible copyrighted use I would have to say that I do not support the means they wish to use to accomplish this goal and neither do the majority of the Internet industry and users.
Major sites like Google, Facebook, Zynga, Twitter, eBay, Mozilla, Yahoo, AOL, and LinkedIn told members of the senate and House of Reps in a letter that SOPA could do more harm than intended. They called it, "a serious risk to our industry's continued track record of innovation and job creation, as well as to our nation's cybersecurity." (http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-57329001-281/how-sopa-would-affect-you-faq/) SOPA threatens to drown innovation, creativity, and online freedom of speech with lawsuits and legal matters. Websites like Wikimedia, which runs wikipedia, wikia, and wikileaks will be shut down. Wikileaks is the website that leaked government documents and got away from government wrath because it fell within their right of free speech, freedom of the press, and the earlier mentioned Fair Use policy to do so. Through the application of this bill the government can shut down this website no matter the rights they have because of it's user-posted content. While this might be a good bonus for the government, you have to keep in mind that everyone will be affected, gamers, artists, shoppers, everyday people who surf the web to stay in touch and pass the time. This does not just affect people who participate in copyright infringement. While even some Representatives are against SOPA, most seem to agree with it and it is likely that the bill will pass through Congress.
The only way to really try to put a stop to SOPA before it can be passed is to write, phone, or email your local congressman and spread the news. While the goal may be noble, this bill is not the way to accomplish it. Right now, without the aid of SOPA the judgment of stopping the making of profit through copyrighted content falls on the owners of the website, and until something better is discovered this is where it should stay. I do not want to one day get on the computer and discover that the only websites I can access are ones who do not stream user-posted content or websites owned by companies the government has deemed as 'nonthreatening' to our welfare.
To learn more about SOPA and how it affects you please go to: http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-57329001-281/how-sopa-would-affect-you-faq/
For information on the government's plan with SOPA please go to: http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/technology/192605-congress-needs-to-pass-rogue-sites-bill-to-protect-the-internet
