There has been a lot of chatter around Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). In a nutshell, it aims to prosecute those who share any copyright-protected material online by cutting off advertisement payments, having search engines remove the links to those offending sites and requiring ISPs to block access to those sites. Its intent is to protect copyright holders and intellectual properties by creating legal avenues for copyright holders to go after online piracy sites. You can read more from this actively maintained Wikipedia link.
Proponents of this bill has made a few arguments for passing SOPA: 1) US copyright protection laws will fail without a strong counter measure against online piracy, 2) piracy kills US jobs by allowing counterfeit goods to easily enter US markets, and 3) it also can be a public safety hazard because counterfeit drugs and other goods may not be up to US standards. These are outlined in more detail here.
There has been many more opponents on SOPA. Their argument is that 1) SOPA will divide Internet by creating multiple patches one legal and the rest illegal networks, 2) it will create undue burden on ISPs, payment processing services and high tech startups to carry the cost of court response crippling Internet related businesses, and 3) it will start off counter responses from other countries blocking those US sites that are deemed to infringe their copyright materials. Summary of these opposition points are available as Vimeo video.
PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.
I think SOPA is a bad idea. To think that you can control flow of information (transfer of digital bits) by legislating against it is a very naive idea. Cost of copying and transmitting information has come down too drastically to control by legal means. Instead of punitive measures, there has to be a legal way to access these information, that is, a consumer-friendly market where these exchange of information can happen at a rate that market can bear. Trying to put the cat back in the box will be an impossible task. It would be akin to Egyptian government trying to shutdown social network after its citizens learned the way to use it to organize.
Solution to piracy is not legislation and enforcement. It's a market that can support people to access copyrighted materials even easier in transparent manner.
Proponents of this bill has made a few arguments for passing SOPA: 1) US copyright protection laws will fail without a strong counter measure against online piracy, 2) piracy kills US jobs by allowing counterfeit goods to easily enter US markets, and 3) it also can be a public safety hazard because counterfeit drugs and other goods may not be up to US standards. These are outlined in more detail here.
There has been many more opponents on SOPA. Their argument is that 1) SOPA will divide Internet by creating multiple patches one legal and the rest illegal networks, 2) it will create undue burden on ISPs, payment processing services and high tech startups to carry the cost of court response crippling Internet related businesses, and 3) it will start off counter responses from other countries blocking those US sites that are deemed to infringe their copyright materials. Summary of these opposition points are available as Vimeo video.
PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.
I think SOPA is a bad idea. To think that you can control flow of information (transfer of digital bits) by legislating against it is a very naive idea. Cost of copying and transmitting information has come down too drastically to control by legal means. Instead of punitive measures, there has to be a legal way to access these information, that is, a consumer-friendly market where these exchange of information can happen at a rate that market can bear. Trying to put the cat back in the box will be an impossible task. It would be akin to Egyptian government trying to shutdown social network after its citizens learned the way to use it to organize.
Solution to piracy is not legislation and enforcement. It's a market that can support people to access copyrighted materials even easier in transparent manner.
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