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To hear some Internet companies tell it, a bill making its way through the U.S. Congress would kill the “open” nature of the web. But if you listen to Hollywood and big-brands like Nike, the same bill is necessary to protect artists and nurture American ingenuity and creativity. |
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| Wikipedia shut down its English-language website for a day in protest against the SOPA and PIPA bills. |
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Big websites such as Wikipedia, Reddit, WordPress, Mozilla and BoingBoing are shutting down their sites this week in protest of the bill, known as the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). The bill was introduced in October to aid in the fight against acts of intellectual property theft such as illegal filesharing and copying of movies and video games
The proposed law has supporters from traditional media that rely on copyright to do business, from groups that represent Hollywood movies and the music recording industry to brands like L'Oreal.
Google and Facebook say that SOPA threatens the “open” spirit that has led to the innovation we value in the internet, but they do not plan to join the shutdown.
What is SOPA?
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SOPA opponents such as Wikipedia are rallying around an effort to call attention to the legislation by convincing websites to "go dark" on Jan. 18, and display only a simple message of protest on a black background. |
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SOPA is currently making its way through the US House of Representatives in Congress. The bill allows the Department of Justice to take action against web sites that are “enabling or facilitating copyright infringement.”
Although the details are still being worked out, SOPA would allow the U.S. Attorney General to get a court order to shut down websites where users post illegal content and jail individuals who post copyrighted material. It would also require search engines to remove guilty sites from search results.
There is already legislation called the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DCMA) that requires websites to take down copyrighted content “in good faith.” This is what is invoked when a YouTube video is taken down at the request of a company who has copyright over that material, like a clip from a movie or television show.
SOPA takes DCMA to new extremes and targets the ways people get to illegal sites. For example, The Pirate Bay is a popular and high-profile site that allows users to pirate movies and music. Under SOPA or PIPA, Wikipedia’s article about The Pirate Bay would not be able to legally link to the site itself, and neither would this NewsHour EXTRA article.
A very similar bill, called PIPA (Protect Intellectual Property Act) is scheduled for a Senate floor vote on January 24th.
Intellectual property vs Internet freedom
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The Motion Pictures Association of America says piracy threatens about 19 millions jobs in America. |
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The Motion Pictures Association says piracy costs $58 billion dollars every year and threatens 19 million American jobs. The group also argues that intellectual property theft harms artists who should be paid for their hard work.
But technology companies like Google and Wikipedia say SOPA and PIPA's approach to policing the internet would make it harder for people to share information online and could damage the ecology of information.
A group of internet pioneers wrote a letter to Congress last year arguing that SOPA would create “an environment of tremendous fear and uncertainty for technological innovation, and seriously harm the credibility of the United States in its role as a steward of key Internet infrastructure.”
Where the debate goes next- and the fate of the PIPA bill- are set to be determined on the Senate floor on January 24. |
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| --Compiled by Ryan Brooks for NewsHour Extra |
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| Should Parents Control Curriculum? Students React |
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 How can any child gain a well rounded perspective of the world when their very education is being cut and sewn by objecting parents into a protective veil they will wear their entire lives? |
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| Alicia, Concord High School |
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