The Internet’s opposition to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) proposed by House Republicans has been fascinating to watch. All of the big boys have voiced their opposition to the bill – Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Twitter, eBay and AOL. Reddit is shutting down for 12 hours today while Wikipedia has been the most forceful in their protests by blacking out their English language site for the entire day. More on the Wikipedia blackout at the end of this post.
The protest deals with the arbitrary manner in which SOPA would empower the government to shut down any online site found guilty of using copyrighted material (intentional or not). Opponents of the bill claim that while they agree with the intent of the bill, the potential for abuse by turning the Internet into a Big Brother state is a major concern as is the belief that SOPA is in violation of the First Amendment. The overall effect of SOPA, opponents say, is that it weakens the power of the Internet. Wikipedia has a comprehensive piece on the dangers of implementing SOPA.
The protests seem to have worked. The White House has already stated that it has no intention of supporting SOPA in its present form,
“While we believe that online piracy by foreign websites is a serious problem that requires a serious legislative response, we will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet…”
and Eric Cantor has promised to not send the bill in its current form to the House floor. Meanwhile media barons like Rupert Murdoch look to expand their control over information.
Dan Gillmor over at The Guardian explains the motive behind Murdoch and other’s support for SOPA.
They will create an information monocolture where regimes work with corporations to control more than what we can read, hear and watch, because they will control how we can speak beyond the room we’re in at the moment.
If one knew little of SOPA and the potential it has for destroying the free flow of information across the Internet, knowing only that Rupert Murdoch supports it would be almost good enough reason to oppose it.
BTW, while some are freaking out over Wikipedia’s self-imposed blackout, here’s a way around it if you must use their site today: hit the ESC key as Wikipedia loads and you’ll have access to the page.
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