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20 February 2012
Good intentions lead to too many restrictions – and another setback in the passing of legislation.
In an amazing show of solidarity, Google, Wikipedia, Boing Boing and thousands of others recently took a courageous stand and temporarily shut down their sites in silent protest of two controversial anti-piracy bills, SOPA and PIPA.
Both bills have been introduced in the U.S. Congress in response to media companies who have long claimed that their copyrighted content is being stolen and then given away for free by some websites.
Thus, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Prevent Internet Piracy Act (PIPA) aim to block piracy via the restriction of access to U.S. websites that link to the content supposedly being “pirated.”
Both bills have their supporters, such as Rupert Murdoch and Time Warner, who claim that the protection of intellectual property online is long overdue.
Many others, however, argue that SOPA and PIPA are examples of not only overkill, but of censorship, especially when targeted legislation designed for the expressed purpose of severing funding to pirate websites is already in place and has been for years.
Opponents of both bills further contend that, should this new legislation pass, much of the content currently shared on the web would no longer be available to publish, or that such content would quickly be censored or removed if it was published.
This would mean that links to other content could not be shared unless otherwise approved.
The protests, both online and otherwise, have resulted in the elimination of certain controversial portions of SOPA.
Discussion of both bills has been pushed back in Congress. It is entirely possible, however, that neither bill will ever come up for a vote, since most legislators now agree that the recent protests have effectively slowed both SOPA and PIPA to a crawl.
Since nature abhors a vacuum, several alternatives to both SOPA and PIPA have recently been introduced, most notably the OPEN Act, which provides more protection to websites accused of piracy, offers better enforcement of existing laws, and allows for piracy cases to be brought before the International Trade Commission.
While the protection of intellectual property rights is both a noble and a worthwhile goal, measures such as SOPA and PIPA are clearly a giant step toward Nationalism.
In a political climate characterized by the fear of more intrusive government, these types of bills are destined to go over like lead balloons.
Worse yet, in directing both attention and resources toward something as seemingly minute as website piracy, Congress is confirming the worst fears of John Q. Public, and sending a clear message that they are simply out of touch with the much more poignant bread and butter issues facing today’s voters.