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Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) 101
By Michael Marr
Expert Author
Article Date: 2011-12-19
Back in October, legislation was proposed in the United States entitled Stop Online Piracy Act. The bill, labeled H.R. 3261, seeks to widen the abilities of law enforcement and copyright holders against alleged copyright violators. With the vote currently scheduled for December 21, 2011, here's a quick rundown of what both sides of the bill are saying.
The bill's purpose is to expand the enforcement of currently existing copyright laws. Included in this expansion is making it a felony to stream copyright material online. Additionally, the enforcement of copyright violations will become easier for copyright holders, as they will be able to bypass the judicial system to take down websites for supposed copyright violations. Thus, simply having a link to a copyrighted image on your website could get your entire domain taken down without your notice.
Opposing parties to the bill complain that the increase in enforcement abilities and penalties will damage basic First Amendment Rights, and generally break the Internet. These opposing parties include major Internet companies like Google. As mentioned above, if a copyright holder simply can bypass the judicial system, there will not only be potential abuse of the copyright holders, but likely rampant abuse as evidenced by recent behavior of the Universal Media Group and a particular non-infringing video by MegaUpload on YouTube.
A recent Fox News segment put it eloquently, ala Antoine Dodson, "hide your kids, hide your wife, and hide your families, because if the feds find out you uploaded a video [...] you might be labeled a felon". Guess we'll have to wait and find out whether or not the Internet apocalypse happens later this week.
About the Author:
Michael Marr is a IT staff Writer for WebProNews.
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