Hello. Today I’m going to be taking a bit of a different track; rather than talking about how the Internet has affected politics, I’m going to talk about how a new bill could affect the Internet. ‘New’ is kind of an inaccurate description, though; this bill has been around since May and it’s only recently come to the attention of a lot of people – now that it’s in the final stages of review. The Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act (Protect IP Act, or PIPA) and its counterpart the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) will, under the guise of doing what their names describe, censor the Internet, mess with its inner workings and make it less secure, and most of all suffocate our free speech and our own intellectual property.
Basically, this bill would allow big media companies to make the government censor the Internet and remove everything that infringes their copyrights. Not only does this include movie clips and song videos, but it also includes every video that has someone covering a well-known song or having the music play in the background as they make a webcam video, every song lyric posted to a lyric database, potentially the Internet Movie Database and other sites like it, and others. Except that not only parts of an infringing website would be censored – if a site does not remove the content within a short time, the entire site will be blocked or taken down altogether. In addition, users that upload copyrighted content of any kind will be subject to up to five years in jail.
Websites that would have to censor user content and search results (or risk takedown) include YouTube, Twitter, Google, Facebook, Reddit, Tumblr, 4chan, Etsy, Vimeo, Flickr, Photobucket, BoingBoing, RapidShare, various blogs, and way too many more to list. (As a side note, most of these are coming out strong against these acts.) It doesn’t even matter if a site is not for profit, or even if it only links to things that could be ‘infringing’, or more frighteningly, ‘threatening companies’ intellectual property’. (This would allow big companies to stop smaller competitors by claiming infringement – resulting in their complete control of that particular industry.)
A prime example of this is music. As I write this, I’m using YouTube to listen to I Dreamed a Dream, Love like Woe, And No Matches, and lots of other songs that I want to hear only on a whim. Do I have the resources to buy every song I ever want to listen to, at any time? Clearly not. Is every song that I ever want to hear even available for purchase, such as remixes and fan covers? No! Do I enjoy the opportunity to leave a quick comment on my thoughts about what I hear? Of course. Have I been introduced to songs I never would have listened to, or rediscovered old favorites, through the ‘Related Videos’ suggestions? Yes!
Lots of sites are protesting this bill, including AmericanCensorship.org, dontcensorthenet.com, fightforthefuture.org, and all kinds of blogs, Tumblr homepages, Twitter accounts, and others that have voluntarily put censorship bars over their titles as a part of the growing movement. Thankfully, even some in the government are protesting it. Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) has put up a censorship bar on her own website and Nancy Pelosi (D) and Darrell Issa (R) have even stated on their Twitter accounts that they finally agree on something – that a better solution to piracy needs to be found rather than these two acts. (Some people are even joking that the entire bill was a ploy to get our political parties to unite.) While it’s a nice sentiment, the fact remains that this act is very real, very scary, and very much still alive. As always, I thank you for reading, and this time I ask you to take a minute and sign one or more of the petitions below, which also have helpful information:
http://americancensorship.org/
http://fightforthefuture.org/pipa/
http://www.dontcensorthenet.com/
PIPA and SOPA represent perhaps the biggest threat to the Internet that the world has ever seen, and they also represent the disgustingly extensive influence of moneyed interests in politics.
ReplyDeleteAs clearly demonstrated, just about every website on the Internet through which media is shared and discovered is staunchly opposed to this bill. In a similar vein, any musical artist with half a brain should be able to easily tell why it's a bad idea: the Internet is the predominant vehicle through which music is discovered and popularized nowadays. Online piracy may take some profits away, but it creates others by introducing the public to artists and songs they've never heard of, which boosts visibility, helps artists sell concert tickets, and more.
So who's against freedom of expression and the sharing of media on the internet? Why, it's the Big Media corporations! It's disgusting but unsurprising to see that media corporations have decided that their profits are more important than freedom of expression, the doctrine of innocence until guilt is proven, jury trials for offenders (websites could be taken down without a trial), and so forth. The promise of the Internet is that it is free. Those who support SOPA and PIPA believe that the promise of the Internet, as well as many enumerated Constitutional rights (as well as the implied right to privacy) is garbage. This is revolting.