What's up with this new bill in congress called SOPA?
By EvanHunter
@EvanHunter (4026)
United States
January 18, 2012 3:09am CST
Stop Online Piracy Act, I notice a lot of websites are down today like Wikipedia to raise awareness. They say the bill as it is now will give the government the authority to pull any website without and legal recourse or legal process. Didn't we just go through something like this last year? Opinions and links to information very much welcome.
1 person likes this
2 responses
@sierras236 (2739)
• United States
18 Jan 12
It is the classic argument about copyrights. The Government wants the ability to shut down websites that violate copyrights. The websites are protesting with a blackout, saying it is not up to the Government to regulate them on these grounds.
Oddly enough, the US Constitution guarantees the rights of every person to their own creations (paraphrasing).
The reason this is such a big deal is that there is a lot of theft going around. The majority of this theft happens from overseas. Thus the motion picture industry, the music industry, and others are pitching fits. SOPA is in response to that.
@TheMetallion (1834)
• United States
18 Jan 12
SOPA/PIPA goes well beyond shutting down websites that violate copyrights. If I link to a website that has a copyright violation somewhere on it, I am not violating copyright, but under SOPA/PIPA the RIAA would have the ability to shut my site down.
A site like Wikipedia would then have to have a human being review every single website to which any person ever links to make sure that nothing anywhere on that site violates copyright, else Wikipedia would risk getting shut down. I'm not exaggerating the burden that would fall on sites like Wikipedia -- or MyLot for that matter -- in the slightest.
That's why Wikipedia is dark today, and that is why you should be on the horn to your congresscritters telling them that their future employment depends on their being front and center taking SOPA/PIPA permamantly off the table.
@Taskr36 (13963)
• United States
18 Jan 12
The morons supporting this crap in congress don't even realize what a massive job-killer this will be. How will it kill jobs? Start shutting down websites in this country and what do you think they will do? They'll move their operations to servers in countries like Hungary, Sealand, and other places where the US government can't touch them. With those sites go the jobs of people who are currently maintaining the servers and domains in this country.
