SOPA: Protection or Censorship?

In September 2010, a bill entitled the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA) was proposed. It never reached a vote due to concerns that the solution it provided – essentially blocking websites that enabled piracy among U.S. Internet users – was too broad to avoid sweeping collateral damage.

In May of this year, a revised version of the bill was reintroduced by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) under the name Protect IP Act of 2011 (or S.968). The Protect IP Act is a reasonable idea on paper. The bill’s primary aim is to prevent intellectual property theft online. Doing this, however, requires government regulation of the Internet, particularly websites registered outside the U.S., which many consider an infringement of the First Amendment.

While the Protect IP Act in itself has stirred unrest among Internet users, it was even more recently revised to address concerns from the tech industry. The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA, also known as E-PARASITE) was introduced to the House of Representatives on October 26, and was granted a judiciary committee hearing yesterday. Unlike the Protect IP Act, SOPA calls for court approval for legal action taken against third party sites, and includes a safe harbor provision that will protect social networks and similar sites, assuming they comply with the removal of infringing material when notified of its presence.

The ramifications of SOPA could be harmful to U.S. interests; for instance, Google expressed concerns that blocking foreign sites would result in foreign countries blocking U.S. sites in return. Representative Maxine Waters’s (D-CA) concerns about SOPA mimicked those of Senator Ron Wyden’s (D-OR) regarding the Protect IP Act: that such legislation will have unforeseen consequences, such as ISPs using their right to block websites discriminatorily or unfairly.

Internet users will be unable to realize the ramifications of this potential legislation while it is under constant scrutiny and revision among lawmakers; however, users can stay informed about the Protect IP Act and SOPA through the resources provided through the BOTW Directories. In the Web Directory, there are listings for websites containing legal information pertaining to the Internet and its effects on intellectual property. There are also BOTW-approved sites offering Internet news and related information.