If you spend a lot of time using the internet as a source for media, whether it is news, sports, music, movies, blogs, or any of the thousands of forms of information now available, then you have likely run into the discussion about the SOPA. In today’s blog post we will discuss what it is and how it can effect regular users like you.
Here’s how Wikipedia explains the bill:
The originally proposed bill would allow the U.S. Department of Justice, as well as copyright holders, to seek court orders against websites accused of enabling or facilitating copyright infringement. Depending on who requests the court orders, the actions could include barring online advertising networks and payment facilitators such as PayPal from doing business with the allegedly infringing website, barring search engines from linking to such sites, and requiring Internet service providers to block access to such sites. The bill would make unauthorized streaming of copyrighted content a crime, with a maximum penalty of five years in prison for 10 pieces of music or movies within six months. The bill also gives immunity to Internet services that voluntarily take action against websites dedicated to infringement, while making liable for damages any copyright holder who knowingly misrepresents that a website is dedicated to infringement.
Basically the bill gives power to big media to have sites shutdown if they disagree with what has been published or say that the media is copyrighted.
Matt Cutts, source we have frequently used on this blog, recently posted about SOPA and the progress against it. He says that if the “SOPA becomes law, it could stifle the innovation (and jobs) that the technology industry creates. That’s why Facebook, Twitter, Mozilla, Google, Yahoo, eBay, AOL, LinkedIn, and Zynga all oppose SOPA. This is not a Democratic or Republican issue…”
Finally, in a New York Times article Rebecca MacKinnon further explain how the potental for abuse of power is one of the most insidious threats to democracy in the internet age. At SEO Services, we manage the ranking of our clients’ websites and their online reputation. We encourage you to learn more about the SOPA and how it can hurt innovation. Companies like ours would be greatly limited by the control of the internet from the government and big media companies.
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks for posting, Rich. I called my representatives and voice my opinion about this legislation. They told me that they had heard from a lot of people on this issue, so I know that if we keep up the calls and emails we can change the direction of this bill.
Nice post Rich. I would hate to see legislation give all the power to the media companies. I hope they see that the internet is a forum for free speech.
Well I’ve been thinking about lately how these problems can be solve. It would be much nicer if you’ll have the current solution for the current problem. Internet is entirely the life of it services. It would affect all of us in a hard manner.