Alisha Cryderman » Blog

For anyone not living under a rock, or at least who regularly visits the web, you may have heard about the new SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Act) bills that our talented congressmen are currently considering implementing into legislation.   The purpose of these bills is much like they sound, to prevent copyright infringement as well as intellectual property theft.  If you could care less about anything politically related then we should just chest bump right now and crush a beer can on our heads.  Or perhaps just watch football together and eat pizza.  ‘Cause honestly, I find most of these issues quite boring and majority of the time to be disheartening, only leaving me frustrated and craving ice cream.  But as a business owner who (daily) utilizes the power of the worldwide web, as well as a regular internet surfer, I felt this issue was crucial to explore.  And frankly, you should too. 

 I first noticed the controversy when I jumped online this morning and saw some of my favorite sites going “dark” in protest.

 So what exactly are SOPA and PIPA? And what will these new bills mean for us, the common folk??  Most people in protest claim it violates internet freedom and free speech.  Because basically, it’s the government stepping in and playing Daddy, cutting off all those bad influences we like to play with.  For instance, popular website, “The Pirate Bay,” is providing an illegal torrent for the awesome song, “Baby Got Back.”  Well, Sir Mix-a-lot, the lyrical genius who changed all our lives, would normally be forced to endure the fact that millions of people could illegally download this torrent, as opposed to actually purchasing it.  Of course, this is not just, fair, right, or by any means should be tolerated.  But people get away with it because “The Pirate Bay” is a platform in Sweden, with different rules and regulations, much lighter than our own.  This is where the new SOPA bill comes in.  With this in effect, Congress would actually cut off all ties to this site by any American servers, i.e. Google (the search engine to find the site), PayPal (the financial site used to pay for such torrents), advertisers (promoting the site) and even internet service providers (those who host the site).  Whether or not these sites approve or like it, they would be forced to cease business with “The Pirate Bay.”   Or face serious consequences, including being shut down for good.

 Let’s reiterate that, shall we?  The bill gives the Department of Justice reign to go after any foreign websites participating in or committing intellectual property left.  Our government can force those companies based in the USA to cut off all ties with such foreign sites.  How so?   Let’s say, for instance, our government believes Google is still providing access to “The Pirate Bay” in its search engine, because they loooooove to back it up when their jam comes on.  Well, the DOJ can then send Google notice to remove the content from their site within five days, or appeal the order in a U.S. Court.  And let’s be real, who can afford to fight the Supreme Court?  Ever hear that song “I fought the law and the law one!”  My thought’s exactly.   (Mind you, under this bill I could be in trouble right now and possibly shut down for copyright infringement on those two songs up above).

Sounds kind of extreme, right?   It gets better… the DOJ is not the only person who can hassle Google, or any other platform they believe is in violation of these bills.  Any rival company can also impose this threat.  It’s kinda like getting a brick thrown in your window with a letter attached by a rubber band that reads “Surrender or ELSE!”   Kinda.   It seems to me like this is causing some serious strain across the entire worldwide web, advocating everyone to turn on each other and play cops and robbers.  Amongst all other negatives such as censorship, prohibiting advancement and elimination of freedom, to name a few.   Can’t we all just get along?  While I have no solution for copyright infringement on the web, I hope we can all pull together and come up with a better answer than this. 

 Here are a couple sites I urge you to check out.  See what all the hype is about and how it affects you and your business, if you have one.  Educate yourself and then do something about it. 

Marketplace Tech

Los Angeles Times