The Background of SOPA
The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) is a United States bill introduced in the United States House of Representatives on October 26, 2011 by U.S. Representative Lamar S. Smith (R-TX).
The SOPA (H.R.3261.IH) is built based on two similar bills viz., PRO-IP Act of 2008 and the senate bill of PROTECT IP Act (PIPA). Industry experts claims that it’s a rewrite of the PIPA bill to not allow copyright holders sue directly of the third parties, but would instead need a court’s approval before taking action against third parties.
Controversial Legislation
The proposed bill was aimed to combat online piracy, and intellectual property theft. This means that the power is given to U.S. Dept. of Justice and Copyright holders to approach court and get restraint orders on the domestic as well as foreign websites accused of enabling or facilitating copyright infringement.
Section 102 (b) of SOPA Bill provides provision for an U.S. Attorney General to take action against a registrant of a domain name used by a foreign infringing site or an owner / operator of a foreign infringing site.
This controversial legislation criminalizes the act of even streaming copyrighted video without permission, punishable by prison time.
Lateef Mtima, director of the Institute for Intellectual Property and Social Justice at Howard University School of Law, expressed concern that users who upload copyrighted content to sites could potentially be held criminally liable themselves, saying, “Perhaps the most dangerous aspect of the bill is that the conduct it would criminalize is so poorly defined. While on its face the bill seems to attempt to distinguish between commercial and non-commercial conduct, purportedly criminalizing the former and permitting the latter, in actuality the bill not only fails to accomplish this but, because of its lack of concrete definitions, it potentially criminalizes conduct that is currently permitted under the law.”
An editorial in Fortune wrote, “This is just another case of Congress doing the bidding of powerful lobbyists—in this case, Hollywood and the music industry, among others. It would be downright mundane if the legislation weren’t so draconian and the rhetoric surrounding it weren’t so transparently pandering.”
Limitations of Law and Legal Proceedings
The proposed bill provides a system whereby any copyright owner can lodge a complaint against an infringing website, and the infringed website may be shut down without a notice or an opportunity to approach court. Further, all advertisers and payment companies are then required to stop doing business with that website.
Censorship on Lawful Speech
The proposed legislation is a clear violation of fundamental rights to free speech. The bill places superior power in the hands of the Attorney General or any content provider to block an alleged website for copyright infringement.
It should be clear that the objectives of the bill is made to demand immediate blocking of an alleged website without fair trial or notice, and that is the only way an Internet service providers and other payment companies to restrict themselves from any liability arises due to the said allegation.
Shutting Down Business to Alleged Websites
SOPA gives ultimate power to the content owners who in turn can shut down an online website by requiring the advertisers and payment companies stop doing business with the alleged website. All this is possible for Content owners who may not have the need to approach court to take down the alleged website.
Wikipedia Blackout and Digital Protest against SOPA
The English Wikipedia blackout occurred for 24 hours on January 18–19, 2012. In place of articles, the site showed only a message in protest of SOPA and PIPA asking visitors to “Imagine a world without free knowledge.”. It is estimated in excess of 160 million people saw the banner.
Currently Twitter, Google, Reddit, Kickstarter, Tumblr, Mozilla, Yahoo, AOL, eBay, Zynga, Facebook, and several other sites have spoken out in opposition of SOPA and PIPA. There is incredible opposition to these bills because they don’t just affect users like you, or small startups, but even very large companies with a large stake in the great things the internet and modern technology have to offer.
On January 19, 2012, Megaupload, a website providing file sharing services, was shut down by the US Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. This led to what Anonymous called “the single largest Internet attack in its history“. Barrett Brown, described as a spokesperson for the group Anonymous by the state-run news outlet RT, said the timing of the raid “couldn’t have come at a worse time in terms of the government’s standpoint”. and said that the websites of the Justice Department, FBI, Universal Music Group, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), and Broadcast Music, Inc had been shut down.
Available Laws for Content Infringements – SOPA is Unnecessary
If infringing content is found, rights holders already have the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) to help them request the legal removal of that content. They also have the ability to sue infringers for damages, as we’ve previously seen with the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) when they, for example, sued a 12-year-old for downloading music.
The Future of SOPA
SOPA has been delayed, for now. The House has agreed to revisit the issue next month, but they now know the White House will veto any bill that’s not more narrowly focused.
California congressman Darrell Issa, who has been opposed to the bill from the beginning, praised the Internet action that has swept like a virus across the Web the past week.
“The voice of the Internet community has been heard,” said Issa. “Much more education for members of Congress about the workings of the Internet is essential if anti-piracy legislation is to be workable and achieve broad appeal.”
On January 15, 2012, Issa said he has received assurances from Rep. Eric Cantor that the bill would not come up for a vote until a consensus could be reached.
The future of SOPA is in the hands of all of us – we need to work together in one voice opposing SOPA and the censorship of our online speech and expression with all our might.
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