Today, Jan. 18, 2012, is Stop Internet Censorship Day. [SIC] Ha.
This is in response to the pending Protect IP Act (PIPA) and its House sister, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).
From their titles alone, these two pieces of legislation appear a benign and necessary response to a growing problem: piracy and copyright infringement via le Intarwebz. Well. We've all heard that famous old adage: "You can't judge a bill by its pretty title." No, my friends, you must judge a bill by its language.
And the language in PIPA and SOPA is, frankly, dangerous. They are riddled with loose, ambiguous definitions that will enforce new, harsh regulations; the poorly-written nature of the new laws will fail to stop their targeted criminal action and instead stall tech innovation, negatively impact small online businesses and startups, and drastically reverse the free and open nature of the internet and the flow of information and online communication as we know it.
I've been perusing a number of articles the past few days; as of some time today (or recently, at least) the vote on SOPA scheduled for later this month has been "postponed until a consensus is reached." This does not mean the bill is dead. The entertainment industry has spent many years and millions of dollars lobbying for legislation of this sort. And PIPA is still very much alive in the Senate.
I'd love to discuss all of the intricate details of the implications of these two bills, but plenty of people have already done that for me.
There's an in-depth breakdown of the language from reddit, and you can find more information AND contact your local congresspersons (DO IT!) at http://americancensorship.org/.
One more thing. This isn't the paranoia of some random high-school pirates and unemployed hackers who are pissed that they will no longer be able to access free DVDs online. And organized protest of the Acts isn't a campaign against protecting copyrights, or anything like that. Copyrights protect artists and their work. I love artists! I love art! It needs to be protected. But SOPA and PIPA are not the answer. They are flawed pieces of legislation written with little input by experts in the field and that are ripe for abuse and overbroad interpretation; they will have a highly disproportional impact on Internet culture and freedom without having a significant impact on the problem they try to eliminate. Sites across the Internet from new, startup or small online businesses to blogs to search engines, including many well-known, well-loved, highly successful sites, will be greatly affected should these bills be voted into law.
We can combat piracy. But any new bills need to contain (here I'm quoting the reddit article, just in case you didn't read it for yourself. But seriously, go read it):
1. Airtight, technically sound definitions.
2. Heavy input from the technology sector. Complex technology legislation should not be drafted by someone who barely has a working knowledge of the internet.
3. Checks and balances ensuring that due-process can be invoked before, during, and after any action is taken.
4. Clear repercussions for entities utilizing the legislation in an abusive manner.
Don't believe me that the Internet community is taking this threat seriously?
Trying going to Wikipedia today. or Google. or craigslist.
Yeah.
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