On January 18, 2012 the whole mankind stumbled upon the most massive online strike in history. According to the sopastrike.com over than 75,000 sites were participating in blackout and millions of internet users all over the world have signed the variety of petitions against SOPA and PIPA.
“On November 15, Google, Facebook, Twitter, Zynga, eBay, Mozilla, Yahoo, AOL, and LinkedIn wrote a letter to key members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, saying SOPA poses "a serious risk to our industry's continued track record of innovation and job creation, as well as to our nation's cybersecurity." Yahoo has reportedly quit the U.S. Chamber of Commerce over the organization's enthusiastic support for SOPA”,
reported Declan McCullagh for the news.cnet.com.
Nowadays the problem of protecting the intellectual property is being raised by more and more people every day. Unauthorized streaming of copyrighted content and selling counterfeit goods harms a lot of manufacturers, businesses and creative artists. The negative effects of online piracy are crippling the economy, the main factor is that illegal downloads cut down the profits of businesses hence reduce the quantity of jobs available on the workforce market. Although there are some benefits of free online content like access to music that is no longer in print, greater exposure for lesser known artists (according to library.thinkquest.org), but piracy is still a crime. And it should be stopped. However, PIPA and SOPA are not the best ways to fight the online piracy. If compare these acts to the real war weapons than they would be considered as weapons of mass that may kill or harm a lot of innocents as it violates the First Amendment for human rights.
The idea to protect the intellectual property from copyright infringement is not new. In 1998 president Clinton signed the first copyright law named Digital Millennium Act that was protecting copyrighted works by criminalizing “production and dissemination of technology, devices, or services intended to circumvent measures” (Wikipedia). However, technological development is rapid nowadays. That is why it is time to find new solutions on fighting against piracy. SOPA and PIPA acts were these first attempts for it, though they were not successful, both internet community and a lot of authorities described the acts as useless and harmful. Harold Mandel, the Syracuse business news examiner, said in his article that “both SOPA and PIPA have been rejected as overreaching and unhelpful laws which cannot coexist with a free and open internet” (examiner.com). The Sandia National Laboratories, that are the part of U.S. Department of energy have given their opinion according SOPA/PIPA acts by stating that it is “unlikely to be effective” and that it will "negatively impact U.S. and global cybersecurity and Internet functionality” (news.cnet.com). Moreover, according to Mike Masnick experts from Sandia National Laboratories have sent “a letter to Rep. Zoe Lofgren confirming most of the problems with the idea of DNS filtering, noting that it would make the internet less secure... and would do nothing to actually stop piracy” (techdirt.com).
The mass strike by modern cybersociety has made government turn down both laws, at least for now. However, the internet piracy is a matter that has to be settled. Nancy Pelosi twitted “need to find a better solution than SOPA”, after being asked by one of the users on her position according to the act (imgur.com). And she is absolutely right; instead of reaction solutions we should find ways to stop piracy without harming ourselves and our future. The SOPA/PIPA blackout is a good lesson showing that modern society will be protecting the free internet and now, instead of lobbying the laws that will not work we need to focus on looking for the right way.
Works Cited
"Digital Millennium Copyright Act." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 28 Jan. 2012.
"Effects of Piracy." Library.thinkquest.org. Web. 28 Jan. 2012.
Mandel, Harold. "Day of Protests of Internet Censorship - Syracuse Business News | Examiner.com." Welcome to Examiner.com | Examiner.com. 18 Jan. 2012. Web. 28 Jan. 2012.
Masnick, Mike. "Sandia National Labs: DNS Filtering In SOPA/PIPA Won't Stop Piracy, But Will Hurt Online Security | Techdirt." Techdirt. 18 Jan. 2012. Web. 28 Jan. 2012.
McCullagh, Declan. "How SOPA Would Affect You: FAQ | Privacy Inc. - CNET News." Technology News - CNET News. 18 Jan. 2012. Web. 28 Jan. 2012.
Pelosi, Nancy. Twitter. 17 Nov. 2011. Web. 28 Jan. 2012.
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