Have you heard of SOPA/PIPA? SOPA is the Stop Online Piracy Act and PIPA is the Protect Intellectual Property Act. A lot of company is opposed to it like Google, Wikipedia and Facebook.
I can't say I fully understand it myself. But from what I know, it means that you can be sued or penalized if you run a website like a blog, and you have a comment section you're going to have even more problems. How?
If you happen to share something that has a potential copyright like a song, you can be shut down or sued. If your readers happen to comment on something and share something with a potential copyright on the comment, you can be shut down as well even if you were not responsible for it. See, it doesn't have to be you who infringed on a copyright, it can be your readers or commenters. You're still responsible for it.
It's basically a censor for the Internet like how China censors the Internet.
Here's an
article from Mashable that I found that explains SOPA/PIPA very well as well as photos of sites that are on blackout on January 18, 2012 like Wikipedia, Google and Wired.
Funny thing is, if SOPA/PIPA is passed. The writer probably can't even show you the photos of the website.
That means, you can't share videos anymore, tweet a photo, share a link or a Youtube video of a music you like.
Here's a summary of what SOPA/PIPA means from the
Mashable article.
SOPA:
- Gives the government the right to unilaterally censor foreign websites.
- Gives copyright holders the right to issue economic takedowns and bring lawsuits against website owners and operators, if those websites have features that make it possible to post infringing content.
- Makes it a felony offense to post a copyrighted song or video.
This bill turns us all into criminals. If it passes, then you either stop using the Internet, or you simply hope that you never end up in the crosshairs, because if you’re targeted, you will be destroyed by this bill. You don’t have to be a big, mean, nasty criminal — common Internet usage is effectively criminalized under this law. This bill will kill American innovation and development of the Internet, as it will become too risky to do anything of value. It is toxic and dangerous, and should not, under any circumstances, be supported.
I hope that this helps you to more clearly understand why SOPA is bad. Rhetoric is efficient, but you should know what you’re opposing and why you’re opposing it. It’s difficult to read and understand, but if you care about the Internet, free speech and personal freedom at all, you owe it to yourself to understand and oppose SOPA. #stopsopa #sopa
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