The Stop Online Piracy Act,
H.R. 3261 is as poorly named as the Patriot Act and just as destructive to a condition
of liberty. While SOPA’s proponents say it will cut down on the illegal piracy
of intellectual property, its opponents call it censorship, saying it really
acts as a kill switch that will cut off access to certain Web sites, sites the
government deems inappropriate.
According to the Independent
Business Times, SOPA is similar to the Protect IP Act that targeted Web
companies “hosting unauthorized content from movies, songs or software. It also
dealt with the trade of counterfeit goods over the Internet.”
Protect IP was placed on hold
by U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who said it would “muzzle speech and
stifle innovation and economic growth.”
SOPA, a bill with bipartisan
support, is written so broadly, says IB Times,
that “even sites that use song clips, or create GIFs using scenes from
copyrighted movies, could potentially be forced to remove the content or be
shut down entirely.”
This could even affect a
YouTube video if a copyrighted piece of music is used, according to some of the
bill’s critics.
Worse, critics contend, the
bill could make sites go away: “Looking into the language hiding under crusades
against foreign sites streaming movies, SOPA would require service providers to
‘disappear’ Web sites violating copyright content. The message this sends? It’s
okay [to] endanger Internet security, and censor entire sites, as long as it’s
in the name of IP enforcement” according to the Electronic Freedom Foundation.
Congress is using the fear of
piracy to control something that it can’t legitimately control, the marketplace
of ideas, the Internet. It also overlooks the fact that technology that causes
the fear is actually a benefit.
Consider that the music
industry hated it when radio stations began playing records on air. It feared
people would stop buying records since they could hear them for free over the
air. What a mistaken thought that was. Record sales soared.
Recall, too, that the same
industry didn’t want cassette recorders on radios to be able to record what was
broadcast and for the same reasons mentioned above. And the movie industry
feared the video recorder for the same reasons, too.
Instead of destroying the music
and movie industries, greater access to the products actually increased sales
and created whole new businesses and technologies to handle the increased
demand for the product.
What if the government took
exception to an article in Chadds Ford Live or what if a competitor reported a
site as being in violation even when it wasn’t? If a site had to wait for adjudication, it might very well
be out of business even if found innocent.
But those are merely practical
issues.
In reality, SOPA is just one
more attempt in the U.S. government’s bid to become more authoritarian and
controlling, as controlling as Middle Eastern governments were in restricting
access to the Internet during last year’s rioting in Egypt. There was also the
Chinese government suppression of Google searches. The U.S. government wants to
be just as controlling. If it achieves that, it can become just as tyrannical.
