SOPA. The Stop Online Piracy Act. For all those living under a hole for the last month or so, it is a law that, if passed, has the potential to destroy the internet as we know it. SOPA was created by the House, but the Senate has an equivalent of this law, the PIPA, or Protect IP Act, that has virtually the same provisions as SOPA. In protest of this law, I will be joining Reddit, Cyanide and Happiness, the Cheezburger Network (owners of Fail Blog, Know Your Meme, Memebase, and the like), and potentially Wikipedia in taking down my site on January 18th. Yes, I understand that quite a few of you depend on this website for the very sustenance that keeps you alive and kicking, but I’m sure you can spend one day without constantly and rapidly checking Historically Irrelevant. But enough about me, let’s talk about SOPA and what it does.
What is SOPA?
SOPA, at its core, is a bill designed to clamp down on copyright infringement that is so rampant across the internet. The provisions of the bill allow the US Department of Justice, as well as any holder of copyright that is being infringed upon, to file a court order against those who either a) actually infringe upon the copyrights of the party or b) facilitate said copyright infringement. The actions they could to take, according to the bill, are broad and far reaching. For one, the US government can block a site from dealing with online money management systems such as PayPal, as well as order search engines like Google to remove the site from search results. More drastic still is that SOPA allows for the government to order all US ISPs (Internet Service Providers, ie the guys who provide your internet access like Optimum Online, Comcast, etc.) to block all access to the site.
What’s so bad about SOPA?
The intentions of SOPA are good; internet copyright infringement and piracy are rampant problems that will eventually have to be dealt with. However, the way SOPA goes about trying to solve these problems shows a fundamental misunderstanding of how the internet works and what it stands for. First and foremost, it is clear that current copyright laws are not sufficient in the new Internet Age. Intellectual Property is an archaic idea that holds little to no weight in an age of remixes and lightning fast communication. According to current copyright laws, if SOPA passes, then sites like YouTube, Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, and any other site that has user generated content will essentially guarantee its removal from the US Internet. Let’s say that a child decides to cover a song on YouTube. For instance, I’m sure you’ve all seen that adorable video of a small kid playing a cover of Jason Mraz’ “I’m Yours” on ukulele (if you haven’t, watch it here). Thanks to SOPA and the current copyright laws in place, that child would be imprisoned for up to five years for infringing upon copyright, and all of YouTube would be shut down thanks to that one video. Think of all the comedians, musicians, and the like that have come out of YouTube by covering other songs or talking about copyrighted items. If SOPA was in effect a few years ago, we’d have no Smosh, no Epic Rap Battles of History, no Justin Beiber (if that’s a good or bad thing is still in quesiton), and no other YouTube videos at all. YouTube wouldn’t be the only site shut down by the provisions of SOPA, however. Share a photo that was previously copyrighted on Flickr? You go to jail, the whole site gets shut down. Post a video of yourself singing “Friday” on Facebook? You go to jail, the whole site gets shut down. Sell a blanket with R2-D2 on it on Etsy? You go to jail, the whole site gets shut down. You get the picture.
That’s not the only downside of SOPA, however. Not only will sites like YouTube be shut down, but it would be illegal for any US citizen to share a link to YouTube on sites like Twitter and Facebook. Essentially, the US government would be committing internet censorship by prohibiting you from sharing links to certain websites. Moreover, SOPA would stifle and effectively kill any more innovation on the Internet. The legal cost to try and create a site that abides by the provisions laid out in SOPA would be too high for small startups to afford. Likewise, the consortieum angel investors who financed sites like YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook, allowing them to survive in their earlier years and morph into the internet giants today, have stated (according to a study conducted by Booz & Company that can be viewed here) that if SOPA is passed, it simply wouldn’t be worth their time to invest in internet companies any more. Essentially, we’d no longer have the potential for another website to come along and enrich our lives. Plus, the vast sums of money companies like Google pump into the US economy would dry up with limited innovation in the internet sphere.
Worst of all, SOPA fails to address or attempt to fix the very reason it was created. SOPA’s stated purpose is to attempt to put an end to internet piracy and copyright infringement. However, all it does is penalize those who aren’t pirating anything in the first place. Sites like YouTube and Tumblr would be taken down for all US visitors, but the way that ISPs block the sites can easily be circumvented by somebody who knows what they’re doing. Because sites like YouTube would still be visible to the rest of the world, all one in the US would have to do is type in YouTube’s IP address in the URL bar of one’s browser rather than YouTube.com to get to the site. Not very hard, right? So SOPA itself is ineffective in blocking sites. Those who know their way around the internet, and those who are pirating bucket loads of content, will be inconvenienced by SOPA, but not much will change in terms of their browsing habits. The people it does hurt are those who are not familiar with the internet and don’t understand what an IP address is. It hurts the grandmother who just wants to talk to her grandchild on Facebook. It hurts the kid who just wants to listen to some music on YouTube.
Who created SOPA?
SOPA was proposed by a few Congressmen in the House, but who in Congress proposed it is unimportant. The real culprits behind the creation of this bill is the motion picture and music industry. Companies like the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) and the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) have poured millions upon millions of dollars into both the House and the Senate in an effort to bribe Congressmen to vote for the bill. SOPA helps them, and hurts the rest of us. It represents a fundamental disconnect between the movie and music companies and general society. As the CEO of Valve, Gabe Newell, has stated numerous times, “Piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem.” The reason people pirate goods, at least most of the time, is because it’s simply easier to pirate than to go out to a brick and mortar store to buy a DVD, or download a movie that is riddled with DRM that prevents you from watching it on certain devices. Apple makes a ton of money off of iTunes because it’s easy, Valve makes a lot of money off of Steam because it’s easy, Netflix makes a lot of money because it’s easy. Most record and movie companies fail to see this, and instead come up with laws like SOPA. SOPA represents the entertainment industry’s inability and lack of willingness to innovate.
What can I do?
Email your Congressman and tell them to vote down SOPA. Raise awareness amongst your friends and on the internet. Sign a petition. Visit http://americancensorship.org/.The more people who know about SOPA the better. The Internet is the last true bastion of free speech left on the planet. I refuse to allow the US government, or anybody for that matter, take it away. I hope you’ll join me in voicing your disapproval to Congress, and help to keep the internet free.
