WHAT ARE PIPA AND SOPA AND DO THEY CONSTITUTE A GOOD OR BAD THING FOR PERSONAL FREEDOM?

A Disco Bear Production

WHAT ARE PIPA AND SOPA?

PIPA & SOPA are laws focusing on anti-piracy SOPA – Stop Online Piracy Act Is a house bill introduced in October that

would give federal prosecutors new powers to crack down on foreign online piracy sites that trade in counterfeit music, movies, software or other U.S. copyrighted products. (Yoursolutions.forrent, 2012)

WHAT ARE PIPA AND SOPA? PIPA – Protect IP Act A similar bill known as Protect IP (PIPA) was

introduced in the senate last may, giving the US government additional tools to curb access to illegal websites, especially those registered outside the US (Knowyourmeme, 2011)

IS IT TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE?

WHO ARE OPPOSING THESE LAWS?

Some of the biggest names on the web are so opposed to these laws that they either shutting down for 24 hours or protesting in some major way. The sites famous for doing this include Google, Reddit, Facebook, Twitter, Mozilla and Wikipedia. (Lastshredsofsanity, 2012)

WHO ARE OPPOSING THESE LAWS?

The general public are the main opposition. They feel the government are engrossing upon their personal freedom.

WHERE DOES OUR PERSONAL FREEDOM START AND END?

WHO ARE OPPOSING THESE LAWS? Many sites already have content filters in

place to control copyrighted content so is there a need for the government to butt in?

WHO ARE OPPOSING THESE LAWS?

Small businesses – larger corporations would be allowed to bypass the court system and temporarily (or permanently) remove “rogue” websites that use duplicate, copyright content. This would only be available to copyright holders who want to protect their investments, control internet content and enforce their system of power (alexanderpease.hubpages, n.d.)

SO WHERE DOES THIS LEAVE SMALLER INDEPENDENT BUSINESSES? 

WHY DID THE BILLS GET SO MUCH OPPOSITION?

The laws would give the U.S. Department of Justice new powers to require U.S. companies to disable links or stop advertising e.g. penalties ranging from criminal sentences, fines and website takedowns for not complying.

The Constitution of the United States and The Bill of Rights gives us personal freedoms that are ours by birthright and law. However, our current government wants to regulate everything we do – even in the privacy of our own homes. (Knowyourmeme, 2011)

WHY DID THE BILLS GET SO MUCH OPPOSITION?

These laws would make the US government comparable to that of the North Koreans or China, with whose policies they strongly disagree with.

If you ever use the internet you will be affected by PIPA/SOPA – facebook, twitter, etc

MEGAUPLOAD LIMITED

Megaupload Limited, better known for its closed websites including the top 15 file hosting service megaupload.com, is an online Hong Kong-based company established in 2005 that ran a number of online services related to file storage and viewing. The domain names were seized and sites shut down by the U.S. Justice department on 19th January 2012. Following their indictment and arrests of the owners for allegedly operating as an organisation dedicated to copyright infringement. The shutdown led to denial-of-service attacks on a range of websites belonging to the U.S. government and copyright organisations. (Wikipedia,2012)

 WAS THIS THE FIRST VICTIM OF PIPA AND SOPA? 

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF THESE NEW LAWS?

To start with it would allow companies to protect their businesses to a bigger degree such as in the music and film industry as piracy would be cut down more people would be buying their music and film with profits going directly back into their industry.

MAKING THE RICH RICHER AND KEEPING THE POOR POOR?

WHAT IS HAPPENING NOW?

Due to the huge amount of opposition to these bills, they have currently been postponed until issues about the bill have been resolved. Hopefully next time they appear they will allow us our personal freedom rather than control it.

REFERENCE LIST:

Yoursolutions.forrent, 2012. A Dark and Virtual Storm Still on the Horizon? [weblog] Available at: http://yoursolutions.forrent.com/property-managers-owners/a-dark-and-virtual-storm-still-on-the-horizon [Accessed: 6/02/2012]

  Knowyourmeme, 2011. Protect IP Act / Stop Online Piracy Act [online] Available

at: http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/events/protect-ip-act-stop-online-piracy-act [Accessed: 6/02/2012]

  Lastshredsofsanity, 2012. Stop SOPA, PIPA And Repeal SB 1867: Save Our

Personal Freedoms And Constitutional Rights [online] Available at: http://lastshredsofsanity.com/stop-sopa-pipa-and-repeal-sb-1867-save-our-personal-freedoms-and-constitutional-rights/ [Accessed: 6/02/2012]

  alexanderpease.hubpages, n.d. SOPA and PIPA [weblog] Available at:

http://alexanderpease.hubpages.com/hub/SOPA-and-PIPA [Accessed: 6/02/2012]   Wikipedia,2012. Megaupload [online] Available at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megaupload [Accessed: 6/02/2012]