17512 Columbia

Our Internet access to the world is in jeopardy!

OPINION – Keep the Internet free and open!

Over the past several months, you have read several posts about the Stop Online Piracy Act (S.O.P.A) or the Senate version, PIPA (officially known as the PROTECT-IP Act). Simply and briefly stated, our “elected” legislators in Congress have introduced bills that will severely limit what we will be able to access using the Internet. Some of our legislators want to have the Internet in the United States resemble the Internet in China, North Korea and other “less than free” nations.

These legislators (elected “public servants” supposed elected to protect and defend us) supporting S.O.P.A., in reality, are protecting and defending the interests of the motion picture and recording industry. S.O.P.A. is an supporting the “big bucks” lobbyists who represent these industries … while taking away our freedom of access to information.

At the end of this post are links to previous articles and to other sites; these links will give you more information about what you can do to contact legislators to register your concern about the erosion of information freedom.

Here is what ProPublica.org has to say about S.O.P.A.:

SOPA and PROTECT IP:  “The End of the Internet as We Know It”

What are SOPA and PROTECT IP?

The PROTECT IP Act (S. 968) and the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA (H.R. 3261) would devastate job-creating American technology companies and social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube in the name of protecting Hollywood copyrights. These bills would create a “Great Firewall of America” by embracing the same Internet censorship tactics as the world’s worst human rights abusers, including regimes like communist China, Iran, Syria, and Burma. A number of technology experts have concluded that these bills would mean “the end of the Internet as we know it.”

What does it do? 

  • Allows any content provider to accuse a website of promoting infringing content and have that site blocked from the Internet.
  • Gives Eric Holder and the Justice Department control over the process for shutting down websites.
  • Guts the tried-and-tested Digital Millenium Copyright Act — which allowed Google and Facebook to thrive in the first place — by shifting liability for policing copyright to social media sites. Every tweet and status update would have to be pre-checked for copyright violations, rather than taken down upon notice of infringement. This would destroy the social networks that small businesses use to find new customers, members of Congress use to communicate with constituents, and the Arab Spring revolutionaries used to overthrow tyrannical regimes.
  • Breaks Internet security by tampering with the Domain Name System (DNS) and encourages the development of an insecure, offshore pirate DNS.

What doesn’t it do? 

Actually prevent people from accessing pirated movies, music, and goods. Anyone looking for pirated content can simply visit the IP address of an infringing site instead of its domain name.

Who’s lobbying for SOPA and PROTECT IP and stands to gain from it? 

Hollywood, the recording industry, trial lawyers, copyright trolls, and labor unions.

Who opposes it? 

America’s most innovative and successful technology companies, venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, Constitutional law experts, free speech advocates, the Tea Party Patriots, and political activists right and left.

Are there better ways to stop piracy? 

Yes. We can focus on shutting off revenue and payment processing for true “rogue” websites. Since the financial system is much more tightly concentrated than the Internet, these financial controls will be far more effective than a difficult to administer, unconstitutional, and ultimately ineffective censorship of the Internet.

When the entertainment industry focused on heavy handed legislation and suing its customers, it failed — teetering on the brink of extinction. When it finally came around and provided legal content options, first through iTunes, and today through Hulu, Netflix, Pandora, and Spotify, it made a comeback. Expanding legal online viewing and listening options is the only way proven to stop piracy.

ProPublica.org has written an excellent article, “SOPA opera: Which legislators support and PIPA?” The article includes a link to “a news app — SOPA Opera — as an online resource to collect the facts about which member of congress support SOPA, and to shine a light on the debate and process behind a bill that may have major ramifications on how the government regulates communication and commerce online. This database keeps track of where members of Congress stand. Findings are based on two factors: whether a member is a sponsor of the proposed bills, and each member’s voting record on the current bills’ precursors and alternatives.”

Pennsylvania’s senator, Bob Casey, has already sided with those who want to take away our Internet freedom.

Here are previous Columbia news, views & reviews articles:

Here are a few links to learn more:

Leave a comment