SOPA. The Stop Online Piracy Act.
Proposed in October, the act is meant to stop the illegal downloading of online content – movies, music and all other things high school students like us don’t pay for. It sounds fine, right? Wrong.
“It’s basically the worst thing ever,” says FVHS student Meagan Faller (’13).
Backed by the huge media industry, the act gives these companies the right to block domain names of sites that may encourage copyright infringement. That means that sites everybody uses – Youtube, Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter – can be shut down. If it’s possible to post pirated content on the site, or information that could further online piracy, a claim can be brought against it. Facebook could be brought down by one picture, Youtube by one song. Even just posting piracy-friendly comments in the comments section of a news site could have repercussions. The Electronic Frontier Foundation offers an in-depth analysis of the consequences of SOPA here.
But SOPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act, wouldn’t be able to actually stop online piracy. While domain names could be blocked, it won’t block the numeric IP number address. That means pirates can still access these websites, but many users won’t be able to.
“I think that it’s a very well intentioned act, meant to fight a very big problem that we face today – internet piracy,” says another student, Adrien Ha (’13), “But the way it’s worded, it leaves too much room for it to be abused and it can have some potentially dangerous impacts on our freedoms.”
Brandon Khong (’13), agreed. “I don’t think it’s necessary… Personally, I find it to be ridiculous because if this act does go into effect, then YouTube might be at risk because the music that is uploaded on a daily basis will be taken off because apparently it doesn’t belong to the user. It’s basically censoring freedom of speech on the internet and I think it’s stupid.”
The internet and tech community’s staunch resistance to the act has so far kept the bill from being passed. Currently Twitter, Google, Reddit, Kickstarter, Tumblr, Mozilla, Yahoo, Craigslist, AOL, eBay, Zynga, Facebook, and several other sites have spoken out in opposition of SOPA. Reddit, a popular social news site is planning a blackout on January 18th in protest, along with many other prominent sites.
The Obama Administration too has come out against SOPA and PIPA (the Protect IP Act, which has also been proposed, and is largely similar), but would agree to let it pass if Congress revises it slightly. Whether the act is altered or not, SOPA and PIPA remain dangerous pieces of legislation; they need to be quashed, not just changed.
But what can you do to stop SOPA?
First of all, we can spread awareness about the problem. SOPA has not yet entered the mainstream population’s public knowledge. In response to a question about SOPA, many of my interviewees responded with, “What’s that?”
We can talk to our representative, Dana Rohrabacher, in voting against it, by posting on his Facebook, or tweeting him. (He’s already been given $35,300 by pro-SOPA groups to vote in favor of the act.)
We can also sign petitions. The Senate is scheduled to vote on Tuesday, January 24th, and unless we find 41 senators to block the vote, it is going to pass. Already, our two senators from California, Senator Feinstein and Senator Boxer have come out in support of the bill.
For the free speech, for the health of the internet – of lolcats and Tumblr angst and dance parties alone in your room to Youtube playlists – do something about SOPA.
