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November 16, 2011

Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA): Protection or Censorship?

By Tracey E. Schelmetic, TMCnet Contributor

If you've been paying attention, you'll know that the online world is in a tizzy over a piece of legislation introduced into Congress in October called SOPA: the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). The Act is being discussed by the House Judiciary Committee today.



Ostensibly a tool to combat intellectual copyright theft, the bill, should it become legislation, will make it easier for the United States Department of Justice and intellectual property owners to gain court orders requiring online advertising networks, Internet service providers (ISPs), payment processors and other organizations to stop service and payments to Web sites and Web-based services accused of copyright infringement.

Not “found guilty of copyright infringement,” you'll note. “Accused of copyright infringement.” You'll note that there is an enormous difference between the two concepts.

Supporters of SOPA (a bipartisan mix of Congresspeople from both parties along with the Motion Picture Association of America, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Screen Actors Guild and 43 state attorneys general along with at least one large drug company) say it will be a grand new tool for U.S. governmental agencies and recording artists, film studios and other owners of intellectual property to squash the thriving film and music piracy industries as well as the sale of counterfeit fashion and pharmaceuticals, mostly abroad. (China, of course, is notorious for disregarding anything so inconvenient as a trademark or copyright.)

Opponents of SOPA (also a bipartisan mix of Congresspeople along with some of the nation's largest tech companies, including Google, Yahoo, Facebook (News - Alert), eBay, Twitter and Zynga) call it frighteningly close to censorship and fear it would be used on legitimate Web sites to stifle innovation, competition and free speech, according to PC World. The Act would replace the current method of “notice and take-down” that exists to protect copyrighted protection online, authorized by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

A group of technology companies has sent a letter to members of the U.S. House of Representatives, stating that SOPA will “pose a serious risk to our industry's continued track record of innovation and job creation, as well as to our nation's cybersecurity.”

Critics have also pointed out that some of SOPA's language is so vague, it may shut down legitimate businesses selling generic goods such as Canadian online pharmacies that sell generic medications to millions of Americans. The Electronic Freedom Foundation, a strong opponent of SOPA, says the Act, as it stands now, would force a change to the existing domain name system and “would threaten to effectively eliminate the DMCA safe harbors that, while imperfect, have spurred much economic growth and online creativity.”

You can find the full text of the Stop Online Privacy Act here.


Tracey Schelmetic is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Tracey's articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Rich Steeves
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