Stop SOPA.
I haven’t posted here in ages. Apologies.
Something’s afoot on the internets. Something pretty significant, and yet for reasons I can’t completely understand, there hasn’t been that much chatter about it.
SOPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act, was introduced into the US House of Representatives near the end of 2011, and if things proceed as they have been, it could soon be law.
I won’t explain in detail what this potential legislation actually says. But the long and short of it is as follows:
Long: Wikipedia Entry
Short: WordPress’ official statement plus an explanatory video
Even shorter: If this law passes, companies (as well as the US government) will be able to shut down websites which they feel are infringing copyright law.
On the surface, this seems like a pretty rational thing to do. However, the text of the legislation is so vague that doesn’t actually do anything to stop piracy at all. What it does do is give the US government and any company the ability to bury other companies in lawsuits and red tape, effectively suing them out of business. ISPs can be ordered by the government to block access to the domain names of any offending websites (though you’ll still be able to access them directly via their IP address). It also represents a shift from pursuing individuals who post copyrighted material, to targetting the entire website that hosts it.
This is not about a few rogue websites that host ripped DVDs or decryption software. In fact, this legislation has attracted the attention of more than a few large organizations. Observe:
There’s even an app available in the Android marketplace that lets you see if a company is on the SOPA supporters list (strangely, there’s no such thing in the Apple App Store, even though Apple is on the SOPA opponents list): Android App
Still need a reason to care about this? Think about any site you’ve used in the past whose sole purpose is to share media/info/ideas with others. This includes:
- YouTube
- Flickr
- Scribd
- SoundCloud
- Twitter
- Tumblr
- Facebook
- Wikipedia
-… etc etc etc (See the SOPA opponents list I pointed out earlier)
Now think about what your experience on the internet would be like with most of those websites blocked or sued to the point that they can no longer operate online.
This is not good. This is less about stopping piracy than it is about giving unprecedented power to corporations/government to deem what is and isn’t appropriate for people to consume online. This is about allowing an industry to quash fundamental mechanisms of free expression in order to protect profits.
It’s no surprise that this isn’t getting much coverage in the media, because the media stands to profit from SOPA being passed, but that’s not really the point. Mainstream media/business is intertwined with the same online, social mechanisms that will suffer as a result of SOPA; there are 80,000 people talking about the NFL, and 264,000 people talking about Coke on Facebook right now. Yet both of these companies support SOPA, which would threaten to wipe out those conversations – and the corresponding data. Data which they rely on to drive their advertising initiatives.
Given the list of companies that have lent their support to this bill, I’m not sure that a boycott is a practical way to respond, especially since the number of companies disappearing from this list continues to change. Although if you can manage without engaging any of these companies, by all means go for it. What would help is for people to be vocal. This will affect a significant number of people in some way, shape, or form. If you’re reading this right now, you’re most likely one of them. If you live in the US, write to your congressperson. For everyone else, write about it through whatever channel you deem appropriate.
