The terms SOPA and PIPA have been thrown around for the last couple of months and today marks an internet-wide blackout that several websites are participating in. But why should we care and why do these sites care?
To condense both acts, which are hundreds of pages long (like pretty much every bill, in order to discourage congressman and officials from reading it in full), SOPA (which stands for Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (the Protect IP Act) serve to give the government a way to control what’s on the internet.
The reason they exist is to stop piracy on the internet via torrent sites, direct download sites and any other free downloads of copyrighted material. Sounds fine, right? Wrong: The problem that has come up is that the bill has “broad definitions and vague language” that allow for the government to shut down, censor and take out many different kinds of websites without any sort of due process of law.
This means that SOPA and PIPA not only give the ability to stop torrent sites, but also sites many of us use everyday like Wikipedia, Tumblr, Youtube, Twitter, Linkedin, and many more who have compiled tons of information from different sites. Not only this, but can you imagine how many people could be out of work by shutting down these popular and resourceful websites? Many say this is a complete and blatant infraction on our freedom of speech, but others think it’s the only way to stop piracy.
A few of the many sites you can visit in oder to write or make a call to Congress, yourself and sign the petition against the bill are fightforthefuture.org and sopastrike.com. You can also visit sopacountdown.com to take a look at some neat info-graphics, get more information, and keep yourself updated.
In just 7 days, the Senate will vote on forever altering the free and open internet by instituting a new regime of extra-judicial, corporate-led website takedowns. This is a fundamental fight about who has power in society — the people with the means to communicate freely or the governments and corporations that feel threatened.
Do something about it.
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